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Birds of Oceania 145
join the WSSE, but was summoned back by Dr. Sanford. Although several status
reports have been published while the expedition was underway (Murphy
1922, 1924, 1938; Chapman 1935), no general overview as to where and when
birds were collected over the 20-year period ever appeared after finishing in
Australia in the middle of World War II (but see the recent brief account by
LeCroy 2005). The “Introductions” to the two bound volumes of individual papers
on the “Birds collected during the WSSE” (No. 1–25 and No. 26–50) prepared
and published by Mayr in 1933(n) and 1942(f), respectively, include brief
comments on the expedition and provide very useful lists of the individual papers,
of bird species and problems discussed. Mayr (1942e: 12) summarized the
accomplishments of the expedition in a few sentences and stated that a considerable
part of his book was based on the magnificent material at hand. Rich
collections were also made of mammals, reptiles, insects, mollusks and other
groups. In 1969, Edwin H. Bryan, Jr., entomologist and curator of the Bishop
Museum, Hawaii, from 1919 to 1968 and a member of the expedition in 1924,
prepared an unpublished chronological summary of and guide to the manuscript
journals and records of the WSSE until 1935 (on file in the Department of Ornithology,
AMNH). However, the last years (1936–1940), when Lindsay Macmillan
collected partly with the aid of Whitney funds are not included in Bryan’s report.
Macmillan’s collecting stopped when he went into military service during World
War II.
Plans for the WSSE probably originated through the friendly rivalry between
Thomas Barbour and Leonard Sanford, both of whom wanted to help their respective
museums, the Museum of Comparative Zoology and the AMNH, to be the
richest in the world in rare species of birds (p. 100). The islands in Polynesia and
Micronesia were famous for such species and Sanford apparently got the idea to
launch an expedition funded by the Harry Payne Whitney family that would visit
all the islands in the Pacific apt to have endemic species.
The first leader was Rollo H. Beck (1870–1950) who started field work in the
Society Islands in 1920 and, over a year later, purchased a seaworthy two-masted
schooner, the “France,” to be able to visit small islands independently. This vessel
was operated until July 1932, when it was sold. Beck was the most successful collector
of seabirds in the world. He had participated in expeditions to the Galapagos
Islands for Lord Rothschild in 1897 and 1901 and had led the Brewster-Sanford
Expedition to the coastal waters of South America (1912–1917). Soon afterwards
he began to prepare for the WSSE. He resigned from this task in 1928. From 1930
until his death he grew apricots, figs, and almonds in California (Pitelka 1986;
Mearns and Mearns 1998). Besides several other persons, his longtime assistants
were E. H. Quayle and José G. Correia. After Beck had retired, Hannibal Hamlin was
in charge (1928–January 1930) followed by William F. Coultas (January 1930–1935)
and L. Macmillan (1936–1940).
The WSSE explored most island groups in the Pacific Ocean (Fig. 4.1), all
together more than 3,000 islands. Owing to the rapid changes in the South Sea
region through habitat destruction, this was the last chance to make representative
collections on the South Sea Islands. The typed and bound journals and letters of