Walter Edmond Clyde Todd

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Walter Edmond Clyde Todd (WE Clyde Todd; born September 6, 1874 in Smithfield , Ohio - † June 25, 1969 in Beaver , Pennsylvania ) was an American ornithologist and curator at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History .

Origin and school time

His father, William Todd, had been a teacher since 1868, the year he graduated from Allegheny College . His mother's name was Isabella Todd. Walter Edmond Clyde was the oldest of three children. The father was the principal at Smithfield Public School on the day of the birth. In 1877 the family moved to Ohio River Town when their father began a job on the faculty at Beaver College in Glenside . Walter Edmond Clyde Todd graduated from Beaver High School in 1891 . For a few months he also attended Geneva College in Beaver Fall. Because of his solid Latin and knowledge of Greek at Beaver High School, he was a lifelong classic advisor to his colleagues at the Carnegie Museum.

When he was only thirteen, he published his first article in The Oologist on beaver land birds. At fourteen he collected a magnolia wood warbler that he wanted to have prepared . But the bird reached the taxidermist due to an accident so torn that the plan failed. Still, Todd insisted on writing an article about the bird and sending it to Dr. Clinton Hart Merriam to the Economic Ornithology and Mammalogy Division of the United States Department of Agriculture in Washington, DC . The report was accepted by Merriam, despite the lack of a preparation.

In 1907 he married Leila E. Eason. She died in 1927.

Todd as a scientist

During his academic career, he also received at least two offers for a position as an honorary professor in the Pennsylvania area, which he declined on the grounds of his limited knowledge. Todd sent many preparations and reports to Washington for which he received money. Even before he graduated, Todd asked Merriam and Joel Asaph Allen at the American Museum of Natural History if there was a position open for a young inexperienced ornithologist. He got a rejection from both of them. Charles Bendire (1836–1897) even wanted to talk him out of the idea by writing to him that you couldn't make money with ornithology.

So he initially accepted a scholarship at Geneva College. In the meantime, he considered starting a career with the Pennsylvania Railroad . But he quickly rejected the plan when Walter Bradford Barrows (1855-1923) offered him a job with a three-month probationary period at the Department of Economic Ornithology and Mammalogy. In October 1891, he began his first job sorting, labeling and cataloging the collection of burgeoning bird stomachs soaked in alcohol. Albert Kenrick Fisher (1856–1948) eventually introduced Todd to the Smithsonian Institution . Here he met Frederic Augustus Lucas and his idol Robert Ridgway . From his friend Edward Alexander Preble (1871–1957) he learned the craft of taxidermy. Todd passed his probationary period. Although indispensable, returned to Pennsylvania for some time and conducted field research on her own.

The result appeared in his publication Birds of western Pennsylvania . In 1892 he first attended a meeting of the American Ornithologists' Union , of which he had been a member since 1890. At the meeting he presented a paper on the birds of his homeland. Todd continued to live in Washington and took occasional trips home. In 1895 he planned two trips, one for himself and one for his young assistant William Henry Phelps . It became a lifelong friendship. Phelps visited Todd annually at the Carnegie Museum to discuss Venezuela's avifauna with him .

Todd's father died on May 18, 1896. Todd was forced to use his money to support the family instead of investing it in ornithology. In the same year, the Economic Ornithology and Mammalogy department moved to the Bureau of Biological Survey . He also fell ill with malaria in September 1896 . He was allowed to go to his home country to relax.

During a meeting of the Pennsylvania Society for Ornithology , he first heard of the Carnegie Library in Pittsburgh, which was just starting a museum division. The position of director went to William Jacob Holland and the position he had hoped for himself to his friend Samuel Nicholson Rhoads . Todd offered himself to Holland as a freelancer for the museum. He accepted the offer. Todd delivered his collected animals to Thaddeus Surber .

When Roads resigned, Todd reapplied and became assistant to Holland in April 1899. His area of ​​interest shifted from Pennsylvania to the Labrador Peninsula and other parts of Canada . In 1963 he published Birds of the Labrador penisula and ajacent areas . After a few years at the Carnegie Museum, many Neotropical birds were delivered to the museum . Even if he never visited the tropics, numerous more or less extensive publications emerged from this. Together with Melbourne Armstrong Carriker , he wrote The birds of the Santa Marta region Colombia in 1922 . He has also published works on birds from the Bahamas and the Pine Island .

Initial descriptions

He is the first to describe some parrot species and subspecies:

Other species that Todd described are the Amazon Strauchtyrann ( Sublegatus obscurior ) (Todd, 1920) and the Todd ant catcher ( Herpsilochmus stictocephalus ) (Todd, 1927).

Honors

For his work The birds of the Santa Marta region Colombia together with Melbourne Armstrong Carriker, he received the William Brewster Medal of the AOU, which he had already joined in 1916. He was the first Fellow of the AOU to receive a second Brewster Medal in 1967 for his work Birds of the Labrador Peninsula and adjacent areas: a distributional list , published in 1963 . Despite health problems, he gave a moving speech in 1965 on the 70th anniversary of the AOU

Outram Bangs and Thomas Edward Penard described a subspecies of the green tangara Tangara gyrola toddi in honor of Todd . The Danish ichthyologist Stenholt Clausen dedicated the scientific taxon to Todd in 1966 of a fish belonging to the genus of egg-laying toothcarps called Callopanchax toddi , which also found its way into the common English name Todd's panchax .

Other common English names are Todd's Antwren for the toddler ant catcher, Todd's Scrub-Flycatcher for the Amazon street tyrant ( Sublegatus obscurior ) (Todd, 1920) and Todd's Goose for a subspecies called Todd's Canada goose ( Branta canadensis interior ) (Todd, 1938).

Works

  • Walter Edmond Clyde Todd, Willis W. Worthington: A contribution to the ornithology of the Bahama Islands , Annals of the Carnegie Museum, 1911
  • Arnold Edward Ortmann, Herbert Osborn, John Brooks Henderson, Thomas Barbour, Walter Edmond Clyde Todd: Contributions to the natural history of the Isle of Pines, Cuba , Board of trustees of the Carnegie institute, 1917
  • Walter Edmond Clyde Todd, Melbourne Armstrong Carriker: The birds of the Santa Marta region of Colombia: a study in altitudinal distribution , Carnegie Institute, 1922, Volume 14 of Annals of the Carnegie Museum, Issue 111 of Publications of the Carnegie Museum
  • Walter Edmond Clyde Todd, George Miksch Sutton: Birds of western Pennsylvania , Univ. of Pittsburgh Press, 1940
  • Herbert Friedmann , junior, Walter Edmond Clyde Todd: A study of the gyrfalcons with particular reference to North America , The Willson Bulletin, 59, 1947
  • The birds of Erie and Presque Island, Erie county, Pennsylvania , Carnegie Institute, 1904
  • The mammal and bird fauna of Beaver County, Pennsylvania , History of Beaver County, 1904
  • A new warbler from the Bahama Islands , Washington Biological Society, Volume 22, 1909
  • Two new woodpeckers from Central America , Washington Biological Society, Vol. 23, 1910
  • The Bahaman species of Geothlypis , The Auk, 28, 1911
  • Descriptions of Seventeen new Neotropical Birds , VIII, No. 2, 1912
  • A Revision of the Genus Chaemepelia , Annals of the Carnegie Museum, VIII, 1913
  • Preliminary diagnoses of apparently new birds from tropical America . In: Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington . tape 26 , 1913, pp. 169-174 ( biodiversitylibrary.org ).
  • Preliminary Diagnoses of Apparently New South American Birds , Washington Biological Society, Vol. XXVIII, 1915
  • The birds of the Isle of Pines , Pittsburgh, 1916
  • On dysithamnus mentalis and its allies , Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, Volume 35, 1916
  • Sixteen new birds from Brazil and Guiana . In: Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington . tape 38 , July 15, 1925, p. 91-100 ( biodiversitylibrary.org ).
  • A study of the neotropical finches of the genus Spinus , Annals of the Carnegie Museum, Volume 27, 1926
  • Five new Manakins from South America , Biological Society of Washington, 41, 1928
  • List of types of birds in the collection of the Carnegie Museum , Carnegie Institute, 1928
  • A revision of the wood-warbler genus Basileuterus and its allies , United States National Museum, Volume 74, Volume 77, 1929
  • New South American Wrens . In: Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington . tape 45 , April 2, 1932, p. 9-14 ( biodiversitylibrary.org ).
  • New South American Birds , Annals of the Carnegie Museum, Vol. 25, 1937
  • Eastern races of the Ruffed Grouse , The Auk, 57, 1940
  • List of the Tinamous in the collection of the Carnegie Museum , Annals of the Carnegie Museum, 29, 1942
  • List of the hummingbirds in the collection of the Carnegie Museum , Annals of the Carnegie Museum, 29, 1942
  • Critical remarks on the races of the Sharp-tailed Sparrow , Annals of the Carnegie Museum, 29, 1942
  • Blue-winged Warbler in Schenley Park , Cardinal, 6, 1943
  • Critical remarks on the trogons , Biological Society of Washington, 56, 1943
  • Two new birds from tropical America , Biological Society of Washington, 56, 1943
  • Critical remarks on the toucans , Biological Society of Washington, 56, 1943
  • The western element in the James Bay avifauna , Canadian Field-Naturalist, 57, 1943
  • Studies in the jacamars and puff-birds , Annals of the Carnegie Museum, 30, 1943
  • Avifaunal changes in western Pennsylvania , Ruffed Grouse, 1, 1944
  • Ungava and the Barren Grounds , Carnegie Magazine, 19, 1945
  • A new gnatcatcher from Bolivia , Biological Society of Washington, 59, 1946
  • Critical notes on the woodpeckers , Annals of the Carnegie Museum, 30, 1946
  • Further note on the Ramphastos ambiguus of Swainson , Biological Society of Washington, 60, 1947
  • The case of the Yellow Warbler , The Auk, 64, 1947
  • A new name for Bonasa umbellus canescen , The Auk, 64, 1947
  • New South American parrots , Annals of the Carnegie Museum, 30, 1947
  • The Venezuelan races of Piaya cayana , Biological Society of Washington, 60, 1947
  • Two new South American pigeon , Biological Society of Washington, 60, 1947
  • Two new owls from Bolivia , Biological Society of Washington, 60, 1947
  • Notes on the birds of southern Saskatchewan , Annals of the Carnegie Museum, 30, 1947
  • Systematics of the White-crowned Sparrow , Biological Society of Washington, 61, 1948
  • A new booby and a new ibis from South America , Biological Society of Washington, 61, 1948
  • Critical remarks on the wood-hewers , Annals of the Carnegie Museum, 31, 1948
  • Critical remarks on the oven-birds , Annals of the Carnegie Museum, 31, 1948
  • The odyssey of the Robin , Carnegie Magazine, 22, 1949
  • Nomenclature of the White-fronted Goose , Condor, 52, 1950
  • A northern race of Red-tailed Hawk , Annals of the Carnegie Museum, 31, 1950
  • A new race of Hudsonian Chickadee , Annals of the Carnegie Museum, 31, 1950
  • Critical notes on the cotingas , Biological Society of Washington, 63, 1950
  • Two apparently new oven-birds from Colombia , Biological Society of Washington, 63, 1950
  • The northern races of Dendrocolaptes certhia , Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences, 40, 1950
  • New tyrant flycatchers from South America , Annals of the Carnegie Museum, 32, 1952
  • Edmund Arthur's ornithological work , Ruffed Grouse, 3, 1952
  • My indelible memory of Bird Rock , Carnegie Magazine, 26, 1952
  • A taxonomic study of the American dunlin (Erolia alpina subspp.) , Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences, 43, 1953
  • Further taxonomic notes the White-crowned Sparrow , The Auk, 70, 1953
  • A new gallinule from Bolivia , Biological Society of Washington, 67, 1953
  • Taxonomic comment on races of Leach Petrel of the Pacific Coast , Condor, 57, 1955
  • Acadian Flycatcher, a new bird for British Columbia , Condor, 59, 1957
  • The Newfoundland race of the Gray-cheeked Thrush , Canadian Field-Naturalist, 72, 1958
  • Review of Pennsylvania birds. An annotated list, by Earl L. Poole , The Auk, 83, 1966
  • Birds of the Buffalo Creek region, Armstrong and Butler Counties, Pennsylvania: including the Todd Sanctuary area , Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania, 1972
  • Birds of the Labrador Peninsula and adjacent areas: a distributional list , Carnegie Museum, 1980, ISBN 978-0-931130-06-9

literature

  • Keir B. Sterling et al. (Ed.): Biographical dictionary of American and Canadian naturalists and environmentalists. Greenwood Press, Westport CT 1997, ISBN 0-313-23047-1 , pp. 776 ff
  • Bo Beolens, Michael Watkins: Whose Bird? Common Bird Names and the People They Commemorate. Yale University Press, New Haven CT 2004, ISBN 0-300-10359-X , p. 339.
  • Barbara Mearns, Richard Mearns: The Bird Collectors. Academic Press, San Diego CA 1998, ISBN 0-12-487440-1 , pp. 160 ff.
  • Kenneth C. Parkes: In memoriam: Walter Edmond Clyde Todd. In: The Auk. 87, 4, October 1970, pp. 635-649 online (PDF; 908 kB) .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Todd, Walter Edmond Clyde
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Clyde Todd, WE
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American ornithologist
DATE OF BIRTH September 6, 1874
PLACE OF BIRTH Smithfield , Ohio
DATE OF DEATH June 25, 1969
Place of death Beaver , Pennsylvania