Position of mail in *Groups* buffer

[Joe Fineman]

I use Gnus to read my mail as well as to browse newsgroups.  When I
bring it up, the *Groups* buffer puts my mail between the 13th & 14th
of the 16 groups listed in ~/.newsrc -- e.g.

      [...]
      11: rec.music.folk 
       2: nnml:mail.misc 
      51: sci.lang 
       1: alt.books.george-orwell 
      53: soc.motss 

What is the reason for this curious behavior?  Is it possible to get
the mail "group" first in the list?

Also, is there an easy way -- short of naming away .newsrc -- to tell
Gnus, this time, just to bring up my mail & not bother with the
newsgroups?
-- 
---  Joe Fineman    joe_f@verizon.net

||:  Life doesn't come with a meaning.  That's a user  :||
||:  modification and voids the warranty.              :||