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Ornithology, Evolution, and Philosophy 123

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Emigration to the United States <strong>and</strong> Life in New York City 107<br />

Fig.3.5. Mayr’s first car, 1933 (Photograph courtesy of Mrs. S. Harrison)<br />

Ford which I need for my excursions” (Fig. 3.5). 6 By that time he had acquired<br />

a substantial knowledge of the local bird fauna.<br />

“I am very busy. One evening I count starlings at their roost, the next evening I sit<br />

at aBarn Owl nest through half of thenight, thethird night I don’t sleep at all because<br />

I leave on a field trip before midnight. It is great fun, if one finds interested young ornithologists<br />

who take up all suggestions. I am now secretary of the Linnaean Society<br />

which doesn’t mean much. It is ‘The local Bird Club,’ extraordinarily layman-like<br />

but those people know their birds. […] Strangely enough so far there was no interest<br />

in breeding biology or in ornithological problems generally, but this may be<br />

changed through slow education” (letter to Stresemann, 12 May 1933; transl.).<br />

At that time, he assisted Irv Kassoy in his barn owl study <strong>and</strong> suggested that<br />

electric light, mirror glass on one side of the nest box <strong>and</strong> a dimmer be installed.<br />

This permitted them to follow <strong>and</strong> photograph the growth of the nestlings. In<br />

particular Mayr liked the big census trip (at the height of the spring migration<br />

in the middle of May) in which he participated once <strong>and</strong> which covered most of<br />

northern New Jersey.<br />

“I arrived around 8 pm at Charlie Urner’s house in Elizabeth, <strong>and</strong> at 9:00 our<br />

whole party went to bed (I don’t remember how <strong>and</strong> where we all slept). Shortly<br />

after midnight we got up again <strong>and</strong> left around 1:00. At once we started to record<br />

a number of species of owls that had previously been staked out at certain localities.<br />

ThenontoTroyMeadowsinNewJersey,thelargestfreshwatermarshinNewJersey,<br />

6 Mayr got quickly used to New York traffic but in July 1935 he was summoned to traffic<br />

court for making a wrong turn <strong>and</strong> fined $2.00.

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