common gull, mew gull or short billed gull (1 Viewer)

can you help please. i was given a gull book- gulls of europe, asia and north america by klaus malling olsen and hans larrson. anyway the book clearly defines that common gull is larus canus length 40-45cm etc and that mew gull- alternative name short billed gull is larus brachyryynchus and length 38-41cm etc etc... now, when you open up the colins field guide at page 172 common gull is listed as larus canus with mew gull in brackets. could anyone offer up an explanation please.

Mew Gull is the american form of Common Gull (Larus canus)

Larus canus canus -European nominate race
Larus canus brachyrhynchus- North American race (-less black on wingtips.)

Either you misread Larus c. brachyrhynchus, they've made a typo, or at some time it was split into a different species . . . .

EDIT: did the clever thing and looked it up in the opus here on BF-

http://www.birdforum.net/opus/Larus_brachyrhynchus

Mew Gull is treated as a separate species in the Olsen book. The introduction to the book states:

We have treated Larus brachyrhynchus as a separate species from Common Gull on the basis of constant differences in all plumages as well as geographical isolation

Click to expand...

thankyou very much for your help. thats that cleared up...