It really isn't my place to define what biblical kinds are. I don't believe that the story of Noah and the flood is anything more that a myth written from the oral traditions of a nomadic desert people. What a kind is has no relevance to the real world. In fact, those desert nomads and modern fundamentalists are the only ones who care what a kind is. I suspect that those nomads are the only ones who have ever had more than a fuzzy idea of what it is anyway.

At any rate, some time ago I was inspired to do some investigating to see if I could find out if kind might have some kind of clear, intuitive meaning. I surmised that the scientific sophistication of an intelligent 6 year old could not be too far beyond that of Noah. Thus, I grabbed several volumes of my old World Book (lots of great pictures - and I know karl appreciates it) and headed next door to visit my neighbors 6 year old daughter.

I opened several of my books to pictures of various animals (I almost said "kinds of animals"). I asked the 6 year old to tell me how many kinds of animals there were. Her first reaction, and I feel an intuitive grasp of the meaning the word held for those ancient nomads, was to count all of the pictures. I insisted that some kinds of animals were pictured more than once. She carefully studied the pictures for a moment and then looked at me with a puzzled expression. As an example, I pointed out the pictures of a lion and a tiger.

"Nooooooo", she responded.

I explained that they were both cats.

"Noooooo! can't you see anything? That's a lion and that's a tiger. Those aren't the same kind of animal," she laughed. (This kind of thing is really hard on the ego, and I was being put down by a 6 year old.)

No matter how I persisted, I could never get that 6 year old to admit that a lion and a tiger were the same kind of animal. I think I may have damaged my reputation for ever, since she now thinks that I'm not too bright. I was able to get one concession though. That 6 year old, after careful study, admitted that a jaguar and a leopard might be the same kind of animal. They don't have the same kind of spots though. Now a cheetah looks like the same kind of animal, but she didn't think it was. The ocelot and the ounce are definitely their own kind of animals.

By the way. None of the animals pictured were the same kind as my tabby. (I think that this assertion did the most to damage my reputation. I hope the neighborhood 6 year olds don't talk about this sort of thing.)

I guess the answer is that if you look at two animals and they look like they're the same kind, they're the same kind. Hope this helps.