Scott Downes wrote

>2)A comment was made that these seem to interbreed heavily, is it possible
>that GW, W, and hybrid couild all be subspecies. One piece of evidence to
>look at is are the offspring sterile or not. Often a species will
>interbreed yet rarely does that offspring have the capabilty to produce
>offspring.
>

Which begs the question, is there a standard currently being used by the
AOU in lumping and splitting?

I believe at one time Lester Short was trying to establish a rule that said
if more than 5% of the pure parental types occur in the area of overlap
than the two groups are acting as separate species. Has the whole issue of
speciation become so muddled since then that every decision is a major
arguement?

Am I looking for black and white answers where there may be none? The
answers to speciation roughly follow the pattern in mantle color of west
coast gulls?

--Jerry <tangren at wsu.edu>