More re Thayer's eyes:

Could well be but still, I believe, the "typical Herring" has a
strikingly baleful gaze attributable to its near-white eyes that Thayer's
would only approximate once in a thousand.

With regard to the Glaucous-winged X Western problem many of we tweets
have alluded too, what do the bill measurements show re overlap or not of
Thayer's bills and GW and/or Western bills. My impression is there would
be no overlap, that is, the largest male Thayer's would still have a
smaller bill than the smallest female GW and/or Western?

Gene.

On Fri, 6 Jan 1995, Dennis Paulson wrote:

> Gene Hunn wrote:
>
> "Re. light-eyes on Thayer's. It depends on what one means by "light"
> perhaps. My impression of ("typical"?) Herring Gull adults is that their
> irises are almost white, color of white gold perhaps, really glaring,
> while the ground color of Thayer's, and the dominant color when the brown
> flecking is minimal is more a rich yellow. Do others agree?"
>
> Don't know if I do. I think they overlap. I have a bunch of closeup
> photos of Herring Gull heads from the Great Lakes (birds that were
> anesthetized to be banded, weighed, and sexed, also photographed) that show
> some birds, by the way, with a surprising amount of brown flecking in the
> iris. They look pale yellow, not white, as--to me--do the palest Thayer's
> eyes.
>
> Any of you who have a copy of _Guide to the Birds of Alaska_, by Robert
> Armstrong, should look up the photo of the Thayer's Gull in there. After I
> took that picture I had it labelled "Herring Gull" for years based on eye
> color, finally realized there was no way it was a Herring (and Thayer's was
> much more common at the dump where I photographed it). That's what
> convinced me Thayer's could have eyes like Herring, and I've seen same
> sufficiently since to keep convincing me.
>
> However, I'm open to having my mind changed, Gene; I'll have to look at
> them some more, and maybe other tweeters will furnish first-hand info.
>
> Dennis Paulson phone: (206) 756-3798
> Slater Museum of Natural History fax: (206) 756-3352
> University of Puget Sound e-mail: dpaulson at ups.edu
> Tacoma, WA 98416
>
>
>