Ornithology, Evolution, and Philosophy 123

Expeditions to New Guinea and the Solomon Islands 79
Fig.2.13. Schooner France. (AMNH Library photographic collection, negative no. 273099)
(1892–1974), and would meet the “France” (Figs. 2.12 and 2.13) in the Solomon
Islands. Mayr was surprised since the preceding communication had implied that
he was to be the leader of the expedition. 11 In retrospect (1992) he commented on
his impressions as follows:
“Perhaps I should explain my annoyance after joining the ‘France.’ From the
correspondence and cables I had, perhaps erroneously, concluded that I was to
be the leader of the WSSE, or at least a co-leader. It turned out that I was merely
considered an additional bird skinner and not involved in any decision making.
Although later on, particularly after Coultas had joined, I became a good friend
of Hannibal Hamlin 12 , I never could get used to Hamlin’s frequent indecision and
even more frequent changes of decisions. One day Choiseul was our next objective,
thenextdayhetoldmewewouldgotoKietaonBougainville.Thefrequentchanges
of his plans were responsible for the fact that I received no mail for about 6 months
(or more). Also Hamlin was often moody and not communicative. After all, he was
very inexperienced, if not immature, just a recent Yale B.A. His knowledge of birds
was almost nil. I think he had inferiority problems and his way of compensating
for them was rather hard on me. And, owing to his inexperience, his judgment
often was less than the best, as became evident again and again. For instance,
when the natives of Choiseul, who knew the ground dove Microgoura meeki well,
11 When Dr. R.C. Murphy at the AMNH in New York did not receive from Mayr a reply
to his cable in May (see p. 74) and needed to fill the position of the expedition leader,
he offered it to William F. Coultas, who accepted (LeCroy 2005). This, of course, was
unknown to Mayr. Coultas joined the expedition on 30 August 1929 and took over the
leadership from H. Hamlin on 23 January 1930.
12 H. Hamlin (1904–1982) was the greatgrandson of A. Lincoln’s first vice-president also
named Hannibal Hamlin. Later he became a neurosurgeon in Providence, R. I., and an
attending surgeon of neuro-surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.