261 The taxonomic status of the Redshank Tringa totanus in Italy by William G. Hale, Francesco Scarton & Roberto Valle Received 24 September 2004 In a revision of the taxonomy of the Redshank Tringa totanus based on examination of a large series of specimens, Hale (1971) suggested that current European populations were the result of hybridisation between two previously separated populations that had evolved in different glacial refuges. Cinnamon birds, from eastern Russia, probably interbred with a dark brown population breeding in Western Europe, giving rise to a hybrid zone in which different colour forms now exist and different degrees of breeding plumage are assumed (many individuals retain winter feathers). Museum collections around the world possessed just 11 birds collected in Italy or thereabouts during the breeding season, three of which were unsexed, making the country among the least represented in terms of numbers in the taxonomic analysis. In recent years three more specimens have become available, giving a total of 11 sexed birds. At the time, this was thought to reflect the very small numbers of Redshank breeding in Italy, but subsequent work by Valle et al. (1995) revealed a population of 1,076–1,169 breeding pairs, of which 90% were in the Lagoon of Venice. A more recent census, performed in 2001, produced an estimated c.1,600 pairs (Scarton & Valle 2004). The Redshank population in the lagoon is one of the most important in the Mediterranean Basin (Valle & Scarton 1996), and has been studied from 1985 until the present (2004). Despite its importance, the morphological characteristics of this population have not been studied previously. Between 1993 and 2001 (none was measured in 1996) 153 different Redshanks were trapped at the nest, ten individuals on two occasions in different years, and the resultant mensural data are now available for taxonomic assessment. Here, these are compared with similar field data from Redshanks trapped in the British Isles and Denmark. Three dominant colour forms exist in Western Europe: a cinnamon form typical of Iceland and the British Isles, wherein nearly all birds retain some winter plumage, whilst in continental Europe grey and brown morphs co-exist (Harrison 1944). Study area The Lagoon of Venice covers c.55,000 ha and is connected to the Adriatic Sea via three entrances; it is the largest lagoon in the Mediterranean and hosts significant populations of breeding waterfowl at national level (e.g. Redshank, Oystercatcher Haematopus ostralegus, Sandwich Tern Sterna sandvicensis, Common Tern S. hirundo, Shelduck Tadorna tadorna and Pygmy Cormorant Phalacrocorax pygmeus), and for the first three-named species at Mediterranean level (Valle & Bull. B.O.C. 2005 125(4) William G. Hale et al.