south and visit Bahrain on their return migration, but this seems 
unlikely as they are not recorded in larger numbers on their southward 
nugration in early winter. Instead, it is more hkely that they spend the 
earlier part of the winter in more northerly latitudes and slowly make 
their way south to Bahrain in March, before returning north. 
References 
BuNDY, G, Connor, CJ and Harrison, CJO 1989. Birds of the eastern province 
of Saudi Arabia. London. 
Erik Hirschfeld, c/o lAL, PO Box 144, Hamma, State of Bahrain 
Comments on the breeding range of 
the Armenian Gull 
]Nerner Suter 
The Armenian Gull Larus armenicus has usually been treated as a 
subspecies of the Herring Gull L. argentatus, or has been included in 
the form cachinnans, which in turn was considered a race of L. argen- 
tatus. The new views on Herring Gull systematics, put forward mainly 
by Continental authors (see J. Haffer, in Glutz von Blotzheim and 
Bauer 1982), split the Armenian form and all relatively dark-mantled 
and primarily yellow-legged populations as two species, L Armenicus 
and L cachinnans, from the true Herring Gulls L argentatus. This 
practice is followed only reluctantly by British authors, who prefer to 
speak of 'groups' rather than valid species (Cramp and Simmons 1982; 
Grant 1986; Ferguson-Lees et al 1986). The new Russian handbook 
(Yudin and Firsova, in Ilychev and Zubakin 1988) is even inconsistent 
in accepting armenicus as a taxon on its own, although Dementiev and 
Gladkov (1967) and Stepanyan (1975) had already recognised the form 
on the subspecific level. 
Eventually, the recognition of three full species needs to be corrobo- 
rated by behavioural, biochemical and genetic studies, and by a better 
understanding of the respective ranges of contact zones, and differ- 
ences in morphology, moult and voice. Although decisions must be 
based on taxonomic criteria, some practical side effects should also be 
considered. Upgrading the forms to full species would draw attention 
to those gulls, and stimulate people to collect distributional data. 
Treating the forms as 'groups' of L argentatus prevents those bird- 
12 
