That LOS Kelp Gull URL -Reply

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Rob
Thanks for the update.  It is not confusing and it reminded me I want to look your later two references.

George

>>> Rob Hilton <robert@csa.com> 02/19/99 02:22pm >>>
A note of caution--

I just reread carefully the corrections etc. about which I posted a few
minutes ago.  It appears that Donna L. Dittman & Steven W. Cardiff, the
authors of the notes, do not recognize the intermedius subspecies of Lesser
Black-backed Gull.  They appear to recognize just Larus fuscus graellsii of
the British and Irish islands and Larus fuscus fuscus from all of
Scandinavia.  In the past, intermedius was considered to be part of the
nominate fuscus subspecies.  Steven Howell, the author of the article in
Euphonia in 1993 dealing with Kelp Gulls in Mexico, appears to share the
same view of Lesser Black-backed Gull taxonomy.  Dwight (1925) explicitly
does not recognize intermedius as a separate form (merging it with fuscus),
and he has other differences with current gull taxonomy.  

However, the Birding magazine articles (1995) as well as Grant's Gulls book
(1986) do recognize three subspecies of Lesser Black-backed, and it is that
taxonomy which Ottavio Janni, myself, and several other posters are using,
as well as Birds of the Western Palearctic, Handbook of Bird
Identification, and other recent books and magazine articles are using.  

I hope this is not too confusing, 

Rob

Rob (Robert) Hilton--robert@csa.com--Bethesda, Md. (very close to
Washington, DC)

"She goes around, opening the doors"--Kristen Hersh  

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