Subject: Re: species concepts
Date: Jun 29 12:29:10 1995
From: Eugene Hunn - hunn at u.washington.edu


David,

If you fly in from the east coast they sure look small and sound funny,
but if you drive up from California or over the Cascades from eastern
Washington I doubt you would ever be able to say, "Ah-ha, that's a
different crow. My understanding is that the populations from Alaska
south to about the San Juan Islands are the same size but that there's a
broad cline throughout western Washington in all measurements. It's true
that vocalizations need systematic study, but virtually all local
observers have thrown up their hands and being able to distinguish to
discrete populations

Gene Hunn.

On Wed, 28 Jun 1995, David B. Wright wrote:

> On Wed, 28 Jun 1995, Eugene Hunn wrote:
>
> > "Northwestern Crows" have already merged with "American Crows." It took
> > maybe 150 years.
>
> So "NW" Crow cannot be distinguished from American? Not even Alaskan
> individuals? I thought the argument was that because there are intermediates
> in Puget Sound, etc., the populations are *in the process of* merging.
>
> David Wright
> dwright at u.washington.edu
>
>