Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!uwvax!rutgers!sunybcs!dmark
From: dmark@cs.Buffalo.EDU (David Mark)
Newsgroups: rec.birds
Subject: Re: What is "Thayer's Gull" ?
Message-ID: <2775@cs.Buffalo.EDU>
Date: 20 Nov 88 03:52:36 GMT
References: <1988Nov11.185810.22941@utzoo.uucp> <32654@oliveb.olivetti.com>
Reply-To: dmark@sunybcs.UUCP (David Mark)
Organization: SUNY/Buffalo Geography
Lines: 15


>	Bear in mind that the pictures in books, the self-perpetuating
>descriptions, and the pigeon-holes are all defined by you scientists, not
>by us birders. 

Field guides are rarely written by 'scientists', and especially not by
systemmatists (sp?).  They are usually written by birders, by 'naturalists',
and/or by nature artists.

The point may be:

If Thayer's-Kumlein's-Iceland is a single species, and forms a cline
darkening to the west, with a continuum of phenotypes, then a search for
reliable field characteristics may be misguided, since there probarably *are*
no gaps between them!