Manual contradicts itself regarding second command line argument

Section 2.1 of "Debugging with GDB" states:

       gdb PROGRAM 1234

  would attach GDB to process '1234' (unless you also have a file named
  '1234'; GDB does check for a core file first).

and section 2.1.1 states:

  [...] If the second argument begins with a decimal digit, GDB will
  first attempt to attach to it as a process, and if that fails, attempt
  to open it as a corefile.

They contradict each other regarding the order of the checks.

       Mark