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3 The New York Years (1931–1953)

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308 9 Ernst Mayr—the Man<br />

Fig.9.5b. Ernst Mayr at <strong>The</strong> Farm, 20 April 1958 (courtesy of Mrs. S. Harrison)<br />

had predicted. It saw us, looked sideways at us, not knowing quite what to do next.<br />

Neither Ernst nor I moved a muscle, our eyes fixed upon the bird, whose breathing<br />

we could see very well. After perhaps one minute, the bird relaxed, walked in the<br />

grass, then, presumably as his raging hormones told him to get going, up he went<br />

for another display. We left the magic spot on tiptoes while he was in the air, went<br />

back to the house and glowed with the memory of that special shared observation”<br />

(in Lein 2005: 25).<br />

Ernst and Gretel Mayr usually spent the summer months and most weekends<br />

from spring to late fall at the farm. <strong>The</strong> entire family always gathered there for<br />

Thanksgivingandvery oftenfor birthday partiesandonother occasions. A surprise<br />

birthday party for Ernst’s 75th birthday was held there with most of his former<br />

students attending (see Figure 3 in Bock 1994a). Part of every day at the farm

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