On 2/18/99 10:03 AM S. Harvey Mudd, MD said > Neither Marion nor I were >able to convince ourselves that we could be sure there was a constant >distinguishable difference in the dark tones of the upper parts of the two. We must have been looking at different Great Black-backeds. The difference was distinct in the birds I compared, also with the same lighting, and facing the same direction. A birder from Calvert County, who was there at the same time I was, made the same comparison, and also thought that the Kelp(?) Gull was a darker, crisper black. Elliot Kirschbaum Baltimore, MD USA mailto:ekirschb@bcpl.net