Date: Mon, 1 Dec 2003 18:15:31 EST Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Paul O'Brien Subject: Re: Maryland Kelp Gull Accepted Comments: To: billellis@ELLISLIST.COM MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Bill, You raised a good question regarding the subspecies of the Maryland Kelp Gull (KEGU). I think it is safe to say that the systematics of KEGUs are evolving. We referenced a paper by Frederic Jiguet in 2000 in which he describes two new subspecies and gives data on the body measurements and plumage characteristics of five subspecies. We don't know whether the ornithological world will accept his new subspecies, or if the characteristics he employs to differentiate them will hold up to further study. For our purposes we noted that the pattern of mirrors and tongues on the primaries of "Shrimpy", the MD KEGU, matched that of the Brazilian population, from which the nominate KEGU, Larus dominicanus dominicanus, was first described. Equally important for the committee's review process was the different pattern seen in the primaries of Antarctic KEGUs. Since all known KEGUs in collections in the US were derived from Antarctic birds, we concluded that it was unlikely that Shrimpy escaped from such collections. But we noted in the Decision Report that we could not be certain that Shrimpy came from Brazil because we did not know whether some as yet unstudied population of KEGUs might also exhibit the same pattern of primary mirrors and tongues as the Brazilian birds (one mirror on P10 and tongues on P4&5). All we knew was that Shrimpy probably was not derived from an Antarctic population (mirror on P10, tongues on P5,6&7). Sorry for the long-winded response, but there was no easy way to clarify the issue. As the systematics of KEGUs are in flux, so also is the distribution, with another one seen in Colorado recently. We will no doubt hear a lot more about this interesting gull before it is all over. Paul O'Brien Rockville, Mont. Co., MD pobrien776@aol.com ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================