By now some of you have already heard that the AOU has taken the decision to invalidate Thayer's Gull.
A bit of background: Considered a subspecies of the Herring Gull by the AOU until 1973. Thayer's Gull, received full species status based largely on the research of A.H. Macpherson and Neil Smith in the 1960's. Smith's work which suggested Thayer's and Kumlien's Gulls mated as separate species on Baffin Island was viewed with much skepticism and this decision by the AOU appears to debunk his claim. Ron Pittaway, a respected authority on this subject has published an excellent account of the history of this taxonomical debate and is worth reading for those interested. http://www.ofo.ca/site/page/view/articles.thayer -------- "I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to be false, and to incur my own abhorrence." ~ Frederick Douglass 風 Swift as the wind 林 Quiet as the forest 火 Conquer like the fire 山 Steady as the mountain Sun Tzu The Art of War > (__/) > (= '.'=) > (") _ (") > Sent from somewhere in the field using my mobile device! Andrew Baksh www.birdingdude.blogspot.com -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME.htm http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES.htm http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birding.aba.org/maillist/NY01 Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
