Date: Sun, 13 Jan 2002 03:08:14 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Phil Davis Subject: Splits [was: Re: [MDOSPREY] Netherlands Birding Trip] In-Reply-To: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed Hi Brian - Here's what I know ... here goes ... Teal. The AOU has not yet split the Green-winged and "Common" Teal. The Brits (the BOURC) did split them recently and they now call them the Eurasian Teal and the Green-winged Teal. The German's recently adopted this split too, I understand. We'll have to see if the AOU will follow suit. The BOURC announced the change last year, but the official publication of the change is due out this month. See the following web site ... http://www.bou.org.uk/recnews00.html The next supplement to the AOU checklist should be out in the July 2002 issue of the Auk. Goose. As you can see on this web site, a Bean Goose split issue is still under consideration by the BOURC ... no action has been taken by the AOU at this time. Brant. Ditto on the Brant ... still under consideration by the BOURC ... has not been split by the AOU. You can find some references and discussion here: http://www.virtualbirder.com/bmail/idfrontiers/200010/w4/ Swans (Bewick's and Tundra). Ditton on the Swans. I understand the German's split this one, too. Gull. The text, below, is from a recent message I sent to someone on this same subject ... There are three "groups" in the Mew Gull (Laurus canus) complex ... The brachyrhynchus group is the (American) Mew Gull The canus group is the (European) Common Gull The kamtschatschensis group is the (Asian) Kamchatka Gull The Brits call the species the "Common Gull" after their form ... and we call the species "Mew Gull" after our form. Ornithologist/taxonomist Charles Sibley (not the Sibley of the field guides) has split the Common Gull out ... some expect the BOU and the AOU to follow suit, but it hasn't happened yet ... The current "Mew Gull" species appears to be a cline and I think the complication is whether to split it in two or three species ... if only two, then what they do with the Kamchatka Gull is problematic. Therefore, at this time, for MD/DC and North American taxonomy, the Common Gull is still a subspecies of the Mew Gull. Hope this helps ... Phil At 11:16 PM 01/09/2002 -0500, Brian Monk wrote: >Hi y'all! > >BTW, does anyone know if the AOU split Common from Green-Winged Teal? If >so, what is the new specific name for Green-Winged? Also, what is the >latest on the Bean Goose debate (rossicus (serrirostris) vs. fabalis), >Brant (hrota vs. nigricans), and Bewick's vs. Tundra Swans? (snip) > Lastly, Common Gull and Mew Gull are not the same species. At least to > an untravelled East Coaster. The only other explanation is that all > gulls are the same species. (snip) ================================== Phil Davis Davidsonville, Maryland USA mailto:PDavis@ix.netcom.com ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= ================================== =========================================================================