Ornithology, Evolution, and Philosophy 123

130 3 The New York Years (1931–1953)
happens that when one works on a book like this, one has to rearrange the material.
I want to accomplish primarily two things: (1) a clear presentation of the more
interesting facts concerning birds, and (2) a reference to the most recent literature
throughouttheworld.Toomanyofthebooksonbirdbiologyseemtobemerely
copies, slightly paraphrased, of some earlier book on the subject. The difficulty
that I have found up to now is that it seems to be impossible to stay within the stated
limits. There is such an infinite variety of information available on birds that one
really doesn’t know where to stop. Parts of my manuscript are already typed and
I may send you some of the typescript for your information. I would prefer if we do
not go beyond this at the present time because I really don’t quite know yet what
I can do during the next year or two. The contract which I have with the publisher,
Oxford University Press, is very elastic and it would cause no difficulties to include
a co-author. I am very much interested in the possibility of doing this together
with you. I think the publisher would like to have the volume well illustrated but
perhaps a little more in the American rather than in the German way. This means
that they are anxious to have illustrations of high artistic value and popular appeal
rather than of great scientific value.”
Subsequently, Mayr turned all of his material for such a book over to W. Meise
(then in Hamburg) who used some of it for his three-volume Natural History of
Birds (1958–1966) published in coauthorship with Rudolf Berndt.
Conservation Biology
Ernst Mayr lived in a conservation-minded environment all his life. His parents
subscribed for him and his brothers to the educational natural history magazine,
Kosmos, which emphasized conservation. In Saxony his mother subscribed to
the journal of the Society for Heimatschutz, which of course also promoted the
preservation of historical buildings, etc. His fatherly birding companion Rudolf
Zimmermann was interested in conservation. It may well have been he who got
Mayr excited about the rapid decline of the Great Bustard in northern Saxony.
In 1923 at least 25 birds had been seen in the region of Grossenhain in the area
suitable for that bird. In 1924 Mayr decided to make a careful census. By bicycle
he crisscrossed the entire suitable area but was able to count only 11 birds. This
was in early spring when the birds were very conspicuous on the fields. He wrote
about his experiences (1924b), his fourth article on birds, and called attention to
the plight of this species in Saxony due to the intensification of agriculture, the
increase of human population and traffic as well as hunting pressure. But more
than that he outlined a series of measures that would have to be taken to save
the species in this region, e.g., hunting to be discontinued, destruction of nests
and eggs to be heavily fined, and information for the local people through leaflets
and lectures increased. The fact that he was able to advance a series of carefully
argued measures indicates that his interest in conservation was more than casual.
During his years as a student in Greifswald he was very much concerned about
the preservation of the Rosenthal, a marvelous area of marshy meadows where
dunlins, snipes, and lapwings were breeding.