Ornithology, Evolution, and Philosophy 123

Emigration to the United States and Life in New York City 111
Charles Urner as well as Mayr’s young friends of the Bronx County Bird Club (Joe
Hickey, Jack Kuerzi, William Vogt, Irving Kassoy, and others) backed his proposal
leading to the approval for publication by the council.
“The council thought that for this more general publication [by M. M. Nice]
maybe we should print 200 copies, or perhaps even 250. Everyone thought I was
totally mad when I insisted that we print 1,000 copies. Hindsight tells me that I was
probably not too diplomatic in getting my way, but Charlie Urner printed 1,000
copies, even though he thought we would probably get stuck with an unsold supply
of about 750 copies. Much to everyone’s surprise, even my own, it took relatively
few years before the whole edition was sold out, the Society not having lost its
shirt, but actually making a profit” (Mayr 1999j).
As Mayr had predicted, these monographs became vast successes and eventually
sold out. The song sparrow monograph even had to be reprinted many years later
(Dover Publ., Inc., New York, 1964). This editorial training proved invaluable for
Mayr when he founded the journal Evolution in 1946 (p. 238). Mayr’s encouragement
of amateurs in New York to undertake serious biological studies of local birds
andofMrs.MargaretM.Nicetowritehermonographicpopulationstudyofthe
Song Sparrow was a major influence on American ornithology during the 1930s.
Seeing America
Even though he worked hard at the museum, often until late in the evening, Mayr
took time off for birdwatching on weekends and to attend the annual meetings of
the American Ornithologists’ Union (AOU), e.g., in Detroit (October 1931) and
Toronto (August 1935). By 1933 he had already lectured at Yale and Princeton
Universities. The first opportunity to see a different part of the States came in
November 1931, when Richard Archbold, a research associate at the Department
of Mammals, invited him to come along for a visit to Georgia, where his father had
a quail hunting preserve at Thomasville. He paid all the expenses, including the
airplane tickets. The small plane from Washington to Jacksonville, Florida, stopped
at least once in each state. Beyond South Carolina, they persuaded the pilot to fly
low over the coastal salt marshes to see the thousands of wintering swans, geese,
and ducks. A limousine brought them from Jacksonville to Thomasville where
they met Herb Stoddard, the director of the preserve, who took them on daily
excursions. “With its sandy soil and extensive pine forests, the region reminded
me of the surroundings of Berlin. Ornithological tidbits were Aramus, Anhinga
and, at the Gulf of Mexico, pelicans and many interesting songbirds” he wrote to
Stresemann (12 November 1931). When they traveled south from Thomasville to
Shell Point on the Gulf Coast, they passed through Tallahassee, which in those days
was a charming, sleepy old Southern town with huge oak trees and lots of Spanish
moss. This wonderful experience also helped to cement Mayr’s friendship with
Dick Archbold.
In the early summer of 1933, Sterling Rockefeller invited Mayr to accompany
him and make a census of all the birds of small Kent Island, in New Brunswick