Isn't it amazing how two people can say pretty much the same
thing and still make it sound like they disagree?

I see the Thayer's/Iceland complex as two phenotypically
distinct end points with a big messy middle. I choose to
believe that there's way too much slop in the middle to
merit a name (ie Kumlien's). As a result, my mental indicator
bar has Thayer's at one end and Iceland at the other and I
slide it way over toward the Iceland side of the scale.

Phil see's Thayer/Kumlien's/Iceland and uses his mental
slide scale which has "dark extreme" Iceland on one end and
Iceland on the other moves it toward the Iceland end.

The only real difference in our assessments is whether
Kumlien's really deserves to be included in the conversation.
Both views get you pretty close to the same place and a
long boring discussion about which taxonomic camp you fall
into would be required to sort out whether Phil's view is better
or mine is (the upshot of which would be: both are equally valid
hypotheses for the still volatile world of gull taxonomy).

--
Mike Patterson
Astoria, OR
celata at pacifier.com

SNOWY OWLS on the Lower Columbia - links to current information
on the 2005 irruption event:
http://home.pacifier.com/~neawanna/SNOW/SNOW20051120.html