Ludlow Griscom

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Ludlow Griscom (born June 17, 1890 in New York City , † May 28, 1959 in Cambridge , Massachusetts ) was an American ornithologist and botanist . Griscom was considered a pioneer of field ornithology.

Life

Parents Clement Acton and Genevieve Sprigg Griscom took Ludlow with them on trips across Europe almost every summer . Since he grew up in an international environment, he learned to speak five languages ​​fluently, ten others could read easily and with a little help from other people even translate a total of 18 languages. He had a private tutor until he was eleven. He then moved to Symes School, which he left at the age of 15 with access to Harvard University . Since he was still too young to study, he spent another two years at home, where he continued his musical and linguistic training. His keyboard training made him a talented concert pianist at times. Music trained his hearing in such a way that this ability later helped him identify birdsong .

At the age of 17 he finally attended a prep course at Columbia University in law . He followed the ideas of his parents, but inside had already committed to ornithology. In 1912 he got the academic degree of the bachelor (eng: AB degree) in law at the Columbia University awarded. He took this as an opportunity to move to Cornell University . There he became the first graduate under Arthur Augustus Allen (1885–1964), who in turn was the first professor of ornithology. For two summers he taught ornithology at West Virginia University . In 1915 he finally earned a Master of Science degree from Cornell University . He taught there for a year before returning to New York.

Since he was determined to work at the American Museum of Natural History , he started in the Department of Ichthyology . Only a little later did the opportunity arise to switch to the ornithological department. From 1917 to 1927 he was first assistant and then deputy curator for ornithology. In the process he learned many valuable things from his mentor Frank Michler Chapman . But the beginning of the First World War changed its situation. As a second lieutenant, Griscom had to drop propaganda material over Germany. In 1927 he became President of the Linnean Society of New York . Its main proponents came from the Bronx County Bird Club . The Bronx Club was the first to use the so-called Griscom Method , which is still practiced today by the National Audubon Society under the name Audubon Christmas Count . In 1927, at the invitation of the herpetologist Thomas Barbour , Griscom moved to Cambridge and built a second center for ornithology. At the Museum of Comparative Zoology he worked as deputy curator for ornithology until 1948, before he was promoted to researching ornithologist and editor.

During his time at the American Museum of Natural History, Griscom went on many voyages of discovery. He was in Nicaragua in 1917 , in Panama in 1924 and 1927 and in Yucatán in 1926 . During his time at Harvard in 1930 he went on a research trip to Guatemala . In Panama, in the Guaymí Indian region, he collected nine new bird species or their subspecies. On his travels he also observed the respective flora with passion. On one of these botanical trips to Newfoundland in 1925 , he met Edith Sumner Sloan, whom he married on September 14, 1926. They both had three children together named Edith, Andrew and Joan.

Ludlow Griscom was active in many clubs and organizations. Among other things, he was a member of the American Ornithologists' Union . In 1949 he suffered his first stroke , followed by another in 1956 on a trip to Mexico . In the same year he was elected President of the American Ornithologists' Union. He accepted the election pro forma , but immediately resigned. Despite warnings from the doctors and dependent on a wheelchair, he and Edith set off on a trip to Africa and Europe in 1958 . Through this last trip, Griscom came across more than 3000 different bird species that he had observed in his life.

Initial descriptions

Ludlow Griscom was involved in or described many first descriptions of genera and species .

Genera

Together with Jonathan Dwight and John Treadwell Nichols , he has described the following species of fish and birds:

Bird species

The following new bird species have been described by Griscom:

The taxon of Woodhen ( Gallirallus conditicius ) ( Peters & Griscom , 1928) is considered invalid because Philip Sclater this already under the name Gallirallus sylvestris ( PL Sclater had described, 1870).

Ludlow also described a lot of subspecies such as Margarornis rubiginosus boultoni . Together with Peters, he also described the taxon for the possibly extinct ebon purple-crowned fruit dove ( Ptilinopus porphyraceus marshallianus ) from Micronesia .

Fish species

Dedication names

In honor of Griscom, some authors have named a subspecies griscomi . The following dedication names were named after Ludlow Griscom:

Publications (selection)

  • Birds of the New York City region . American Museum of Natural History, New York 1923 ( biodiversitylibrary.org ).
  • with Frank Michler Chapman: The house wrens of the genus Troglodytes . In: Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History . tape 50 , no. 5 , 1924, pp. 279–304 ( digitallibrary.amnh.org [PDF; 2.8 MB ]).
  • with Maunsell Schieffelin Crosby: Birds of the Brownsville region, Southern Texas . In: The Auk . tape 42 , no. 3 , 1925, p. 432–447 ( sora.unm.edu [PDF; 365 kB ]).
  • with Waldron DeWitt Miller: Descriptions of new birds from Nicaragua . In: American Museum novitates . No. 159 , 1925, pp. 1–9 ( digitallibrary.amnh.org [PDF; 845 kB ]).
  • Undescribed or little-known birds from Panama . In: American Museum novitates . No. 280 , 1927, pp. 1–20 ( digitallibrary.amnh.org [PDF; 12.0 MB ]).
  • An ornithological reconnaissance in eastern Panama in 1927 . In: American Museum novitates . No. 282 , 1927, pp. 1–10 ( digitallibrary.amnh.org [PDF; 1.1 MB ]).
  • New birds from Mexico and Panama . In: American Museum novitates . No. 293 , 1928, pp. 1–6 ( digitallibrary.amnh.org [PDF; 626 kB ]).
  • A collection of Birds from Cana, Darien . In: Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard College . tape 69 , 1929, pp. 149-190 ( biodiversitylibrary.org ).
  • Studies from the Dwight collection of Guatemala birds. I . In: American Museum Novitates . No. 379 , 1929, pp. 1–13 (English, digitallibrary.amnh.org [PDF; 1,3 MB ]).
  • Critical notes on Central American birds . In: Proceedings of the New England Zoological Club . tape 12 , April 3, 1930, pp. 1–8 ( books.google.de ).
  • Maunsell Schieffelin Crosby . In: The Auk . tape 48 , no. 2 , 1931, p. 320–322 ( sora.unm.edu [PDF; 648 kB ]).
  • The ornithology of the Caribbean coast of extreme eastern Panama . In: Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard College . tape 72 , no. 9 , 1932, pp. 303-372 ( biodiversitylibrary.org ).
  • The distribution of bird-life in Guatemala: a contribution to a study of the origin of Central American bird-life . In: Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History . tape 64 , no. 1 , 1932, p. 1–416 ( digitallibrary.amnh.org [PDF; 53.4 MB ]).
  • New Birds from Honduras and Mexico . In: Proceedings of the New England Zoological Club . tape 13 , 1932, p. 55-62 .
  • The Ornithology of Guerrero, Mexico . In: Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard College . tape 75 , no. 10 , 1934, pp. 367-422 ( biodiversitylibrary.org ).
  • The Ornithology of the Republic of Panama . In: Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard College . tape 78 , no. 3 , 1935, pp. 261-382 ( biodiversitylibrary.org ).
  • with James Cowan Greenway: Critical notes on new Neotropical Birds . In: Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard College . tape 81 , no. 2 , 1937, pp. 417-437 ( biodiversitylibrary.org ).
  • A monographic study of the Red Crossbill . In: Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History . tape 41 , no. 5 , 1937, pp. 77-299 ( books.google.de ).
  • Modern bird study . Harvard University Press, Cambridge 1945 ( books.google.de ).
  • with Edith V. Folger: Birds of Nantucket . Harvard University Press, Cambridge 1948 ( books.google.de ).
  • The birds of Concord: a study in population trends . Harvard University Press, Cambridge 1949 ( books.google.de ).
  • with Herbert Friedmann , Robert Thomas Moore : Distributional check-list of the Birds of Mexico, Part I . In: Pacific Coast Avifauna . No. 29 , 1950 ( sora.unm.edu [PDF; 3.9 MB ]).
  • with Dorothy Eastman Snyder: The Birds of Massachusetts: An Annotated and Revised Check List . Salem Peabody Museum, Salem 1955 ( books.google.de ).
  • with Herbert Friedmann, Robert Thomas Moore: Distributional Check-list of the Birds of Mexico, Part II . In: Pacific Coast Avifauna . No. 33 , 1957 ( sora.unm.edu [PDF; 7.9 MB ]).
  • with Guy Emerson: Birds of Martha's Vineyard: With an Annotated Check List . Salem Peabody Museum, Massachusetts 1959 ( books.google.de ).

literature

  • William Edwin Davis Jr .: Dean of the Birdwatchers: A Biography of Ludlow Griscom . Prentice Hall & IBD, Upper Saddle River 1994, ISBN 978-1-56098-310-1 .
  • Roger Tory Peterson : In memoriam: Ludlow Griscom . In: The Auk . tape 82 , no. 4 , 1965, pp. 598–605 ( online [PDF; 441 kB ; accessed on June 29, 2011]).
  • Storrs Lovejoy Olson : Requiescat for Tricholimnas conditicius, a rail that never was . In: The Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club . tape 112 , no. 3 , 1992, p. 174–179 ( online [PDF; 110 kB ; accessed on June 29, 2011]).

Individual evidence

  1. The Auk article (PDF; 441 kB)
  2. Requiescat for Tricholimnas conditicius, a Rail that Never Was (PDF; 110 kB)