Bill Mauck kindly sent me his further observations on the mantle color of the St Mary's ? Kelp Gull. With Bill's permission, his message is copied below: On Feb. 20 my wife Cathy and I went down to St. Mary's so she could see the Kelp Gull. As it happened, there were 4 GBBGs on the pier with the Kelp. One of the 4 had a much, much lighter mantle (sub-adult?) while two of the 4 had significantly lighter mantles apparent in any light. The fourth bird's mantle was very nearly the same degree of blackness as the Kelp's. While all these birds had dry feathers, it does appear the Kelp's mantle is "shinier" than the GBBGs'. I believe the Kelp's white parts are slightly whiter than the GBBGs which increases the contrast and thus makes the Kelp's mantle appear blacker. Or, as some have said, "crisper." It does appear that any comparison of the color of the mantle of the ? Kelp Gull to those of GBBGs will be affected by the particular GBBG to which the comparison is made. A book I meant to mention in my posting yesterday that contains a useful color photo of the underwings of a flying Kelp Gull is "Complete Book of South African Birds", P.J.Ginn et al, Struik, Cape Town, 1991. The underwing of the soaring bird on p. 272 appears to me just like that of the St Mary's bird which we saw very well as it soared repeatedly in the wind last Sunday, Feb 21. Judging by the black-and-white drawings of the underwings of Kelp, Herring, and Kelp x Herring F1 hybrids provided by Donna Dittman on the web (http://losbird.org/kelp.htm) the underwing of the St Mary's bird to me fit best with that of Kelp Gull. Nevertheless, it would be very useful to the Records Committee to have a copy of any photo that shows this underwing pattern well. If anyone has such a photo, please do make sure an original (to be copied if necessary) or a copy to keep gets to Phil Davis. Thanks in advance. Harvey Mudd ____________________________________ S. Harvey Mudd NIMH/DIRP/LMB Building 36, Room 1B-08 36 CONVENT DR MSC 4034 BETHESDA MD 20892-4034 tel: 301-496-0681; fax 301-402-0245 email: shm@codon.nih.gov