Ornithology, Evolution, and Philosophy 123

162 4 Ornithologist and Zoogeographer
Fig.4.11. Ernst Mayr named 26 new species (dots) and 445 new subspecies of birds (histograms)
between 1927 and 1986. Subspecies accepted in Peters’ Check-list are shaded, those
synonymized are blank. For further details see text
from Mayr and he named only forms which Zimmer approved of. Admittedly,
like the best taxonomists of the day, he was also a splitter. Several of Mayr’s newly
described subspecies, particularly among the insular forms, probably will be raised
to species status when more details on their life history and behavior are known,
e.g., Phalacrocorax melanoleucos brevicauda, Eurostopodus mystacalis exul, and
others. Mayr described 376 taxa (including 26 species) alone and 95 in coauthorship
with his colleagues A. Rand (33 taxa) during the 1930s, D. S. Ripley (15 taxa) in 1941,
and T. Gilliard (29 taxa) during the 1950s. Other coauthors with whom he described
one or several new subspecies were Birckhead, Greenway, Serventy, Meyer de
Schauensee, K. Jennings, Gyldenstolpe, Van Deusen, and McEvey. From the birds
which Mayr collected in former Dutch New Guinea, Hartert (1930) described three
valid new species and 28 valid new subspecies.
Like many contemporary ornithologists (e.g., Hartert, Stresemann) Mayr also
delimited polytypic species taxa rather broadly, in a few cases including in one
species an allopatric representative as a new subspecies which, on the basis of
additional evidence, is considered a full biological species by today’s somewhat
narrower standards. Examples are Phalacrocorax melanoleucos brevicauda Mayr
1931 (Rennell Island), possibly Eurostopodus mystacalis exul Mayr 1941 (New
Caledonia), and also Rallina rubra [leucospila] mayri Hartert 1930 (northern New
Guinea). The number of full biological species described by Mayr will probably
increase when, in the future, genera of birds will be revised which comprise
well-differentiated subspecies that he described. Of course, such taxa represent
phylogenetic “species” under that “species” concept (p. 204).
The authors of J.L. Peters’ Check-list of Birds of the World (1931–1987) accepted
most of Mayr’s new taxa. They and several authors of more recent monographs
combined (synonymized) only 26 of Mayr’s 445 subspecies with previously described
forms. Among the authors of the Check-list is also Ernst Mayr himself who
synonymized or accepted the synonymy of 12 forms which he had described in