nerz, missed the edit window.
I mean, Bald Eagle or Congo African Grey Parrot would both be species?
whereas BIRD is a class, is that right?
A Lion, maybe. There are other species of big cats, including Tiger, Leopard, and Jaguar. The Puma is also in the cat family, and big, but it’s not that closely related to these other species.
Yes.
Yes. Eagles, parrots, hummingbirds, finches, ducks, and ostriches are all in the same Class. The Class Mammalia includes kangaroos, whales, wolves, horses, mice, and monkeys.
Ok so the platypus comment was me being slightly facetious, but…
Tigers and lions crossbreed (admittedly in captivity, it would be one helluva trip for a booty call) to give ligers and tiglons. So are they artificially inseminated as their courtships would surely differ?
No. They mate with each other in captivity because they don’t have any other options. They probably wouldn’t do so in the wild, even if they occurred in the same place.
Many species of ducks hybridize in captivity, and even produce fertile offspring, but don’t do so in the wild because their courtship behavior differs.
Ok, thanks.
For that matter, many humans will mate with partners in captivity whom they wouldn’t consider acceptable if free.
Hence, marriage.
HEYO!
The feral pigeon populations I see in cities around here seem to be a mix of stock/rock doves and wood pigeons in fully integrated flocks - I’d be very surprised if they’re not interbreeding (it’s hard to tell because of the considerable variability in plumage of feral pigeons that exists anyway)
Ring neck doves have been known to cross with the rock dove in captivity. The domestic homing pigeon I believe is a rock dove.
My grandma had a linnet/canary cross bred bird, it was quite popular in Victorian times as they sing well, but are described as mules as they are infertile (at lest that’s what she said)
You mean because none of them will return my calls?
The real question is: Who would win in a fight between a lion and a tiger?
If only someone could research this and provide some cites…
A double-damn hex on you if you get *that *thread restarted! 
One question that came to me after another poster mentioned fish as a class, are fish really a class?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/qi/5514118/QI-quite-interesting-facts-about-fish.html
If that is the case, what is the correct way to call the scaly no eyelid finned critters?
The class you’re looking for is Osteichthyes.
I suspected as much, but Colibri was answering in the affirmative for the birds, maybe he was referring to the Aves class in that case. (which means “birds” in English BTW.)
He was just using a colloquial term (I assume). It’s a little easier with birds. Most people realize jailbirds aren’t in class aves. The name fish gets applied to animals more often, such as hagfish and silverfish (the bug) which are in different classes. So using ‘bird’ for ‘aves’ isn’t going to confuse most people.