In Memoriam

TheAuk 115(3):755-758, 1998

IN MEMORIAM: MARTIN HUMPHREY MOYNIHAN, 1928-1996

NEAL GRIFFITH SMITH SmithsonianTropical Research Institute, Balboa, Ancon, Panama

Martin Moynihandied of lung canceron 3 ritualization and causation all received his at- December1996 at a hospitalnear his farm at tention,through the gulls.From the first gull Albi, France. He was a former director of the paperscame his highly distinctive, boldly orig- Canal Zone Biological Area/Smithsonian inal, black-and-whiteink depictionsof dis- TropicalResearch Institute (STRI) and one of playsthat were as much a Moynihantrademark the mostinfluential figures in behavioralevo- aswere the originalideas expressed in his pa- lutionarybiology, particularly with tropicalor- pers (see Figs. 1 and 2). All of Moynihan's ganisms.He joined the AOU in 1954,became booksand papersare full of thesewonderfully an Elective Member in 1959, and a Fellow in strangerepresentations of form and flow of be- 1966. haviorin birds,primates, and cephalopods! Martin wasborn on 5 February1928 in Chi- After Oxford, Martin entered into a series of cago,Illinois. As a youthhe traveledwidely in postdoctoralswhich, while basedat Harvard Europewith his motherand considered French and Cornell,allowed him to traveland pull the his co-nativetongue. His secondaryeducation gull businesstogether, which he did in his re- was at HoraceMann Schoolin New YorkCity, visionof the Laridae., CharlesSib- where at 15 he became interested in birds at the ley, and EugeneEisenmann were his friends American Museum of Natural History and and advisers. All three claimed to have been within two yearshad metErnst Mayr, the piv- solelyresponsible for the Smithsonian'shiring otal figure in his development.Mayr took on of that youngbehaviorist as ResidentNatural- Martin and the resultwas his first paperat age ist of in the then Canal 18. Martin's undergraduatecareer at Princeton Zoneof the Republicof Panama.A brightTin- was interruptedby army servicein Korea,but bergen-trainedethologist who understoodthe he graduatedSumma Cum Laudein 1950.He New Systematicsand evolutionarybiology wanted to work with David Lack at Oxford, but couldscarcely be overlooked.At the time,he eventstranspired so that he enteredthe behav- was probablyunique. ior group under Niko Tinbergen.Martin told Barro Colorado, a forested island in the me thatLack was away at thetime, that he him- midst of the Panama Canal was, in 1957, a sort self couldn't "see the damn tits in the woods, of tropicalArcadia. It had beenmade famous and that gullswere big and easy."Indeed! by the semipopularwritings of Frank Chap- Thatwas the blossoming period of European man. Good research had been done there: ethology.Martin's fellow researchers included Chapman'sown researchon manakin leks was, , David Blest, and Aubrey like much of his work, well ahead of the time. Manningto mentionbut a few whorose to star- Carpenter'swork on howler monkeysand domin someaspect of behavioralresearch. But Schnerla'sstudies on army antswere alsofirsts. Martin was different.His all-consuminginter- But when the Smithsonian took over Barro Col- est was in evolution.Princeton gave him a oradoin 1946,it ratherlanguished despite a strongbackground in paleontology,which al- number of bird and mammal life histories. That mostall behavioristsand ecologistslacked. He changedwith Martin Moynihan'sarrival in was alwaysa three-dimensionalthinker. what he lovedto call "the greenhell." And I His bibliographyshows that he dealt with will arguethat the wholescheme of what was the hot questionsof the day at Oxford:drives, to become"tropical biology" was set onto a

755 756 In Memoriam [Auk, Vol. 115

MARTIN H. MOYNIHAN, 1928--1996

(Studyingkingfishers in Sumatra) pathby this oneindividual who showedthat it ing ideasin a totallydifferent direction. They was indeedpossible to do sophisticatedbiolo- are socialmimicry; the significanceof mixed- gy there;the phenomenathat he presentedto speciesflocks; the origin,life, and deathof dis- the world influenced researchers who were plays;and finally the relativeevolutionary suc- only vaguelyaware of the name Martin Moy- cessof temperateversus tropical animals. nihan. Thefirst paper of histhat I readwas his over- I see four areasin which Martin Moynihan view of the Larusgulls. I wasinterested in gulls eithermade original ideas or developedexist- and I liked his Mayr-like sweepin properly July 1998] In Memoriam 757

FIG.2. Thick-billedEuphonia (Euphonia laniiros- tris). Pen-and-inkby Martin Moynihan.

FIG.1. Aggressivepostures of the CaliforniaGull years.! wonderhow many of his formergrad- (Larus californicus).Pen-and-ink by Martin Moyni- uate associatesrealized that?Many readersof TheAuk will not know that he studiedcepha- lopodsin muchthe samemanner that he stud- ied birds: wearing sneakers,carrying a note outliningthe broadevolutionary relationships pad, and with a pipe stuckin his teeth! Ani- in thegroup. The approach was strange, but the malshad fixednumbers of displays,and some result was good.When I read his first mixed- cephalopoddisplays were millions of years speciespapers in preparationto my comingto old. A subtitlein hiscephalopod book read "Of Panama,my thinking was jolted. What a bi- armsand the man and variouscolor changes I zarre way to think aboutbirds, alien as they sing,Baby--Vergil and Hart." I don'tthink that wereto me at thattime. These same species are cephalopodbiologists ever got overthat book. now, after 36 years,almost ignored in my ev- But the temperate/tropicalcomparison was erydayactivity. But when ! rereadMartin's pa- a soupthat he stirredalmost constantly, never pers,they become players on a higherlevel in satisfiedthat he had it right, and goadingoth- an all-so-subtleand terribly importantevolu- ers to come up with ideas. When "broken tionary play. I was not alonein being thrilled sticks" and speciesdiversity were in vogue, by his ideas.Terms like "passivenuclear" and Martin deliveredhis all-too-frequentjudgment "activenuclear" species were Martin's, but they thatthey were "beneath contempt" in theirfail- quicklybecame part of the lingua francaof stu- ure to considerpaleontological history. "Can dents of mixed-speciesassemblages of birds, you imagine consideringthat the antelope mammals,and fishesthroughout the world-- niche of North America is filled? Send them and usuallywithout citing the originalpapers. back to the Pleistocene!" Is this high praise? Asidefrom thesefour conceptsis the over- Moynihan'sdevelopment of "socialmimic- whelming fact that in 17 yearshe built a re- ry" stirred up an intellectualbrew that I claim searchorganization from almost nothing to one gaverise to suchtrends as "badge school of sta- of the most productivein the world. And he tus advertising,""handicap principles," etc., still managedto write 25 papersand booksto- and eventhe latest"symmetry" fads. His 1970 talingmore than 1,000pages. And a book,fin- paper on the appearanceand replacementof ishedduring the terminalphase of his illness, displaysshould be readwith hisbook on ceph- is yet to appear. alopodcommunication to get the full brunt of Martin cameto the Smithsonianat the right thathighly original argument. It wasan answer time. He started under Leonard Carmichael, a to many of the centralquestions of the Oxford psychologistof the Americanschool and a fel- 758 In Memoriam [Auk, Vol. 115 low Princetonian.Martin playedthat coin to graduatestudents, Ira Rubinoff,to carry the his advantage.At first he broughthis friends battleon againstWashington. And his choice from Oxford, Harvard, and Cornell to Panama was the correct one, for we are still here. for shortvisits, but soonhe realized that a per- Martin marriedanthropologist Olga Linares manent staff was needed. Carmichael came andbegan to returnto researchand travel,es- through.Dillon Ripley followed,and his ad- peciallyto Africawhere she worked. But he re- mirationfor theIvy League/OxfordMoynihan mained an enormous influence on the STRI was great.Martin got what he askedfor, and group,and to some,a real thornin the sideof the Smithsoniangot the prize. Those were an expanding administration.He and Olga high-flyingyears indeed. boughta farmhouse in southernFrance, where ErnstMayr and EugeneEisenmann told me he kept and studiedvarious pheasants. They thatwhen they were asked in theearly days by traveledto her researcharea in Senegal,where researchers,seeking to graspthe new "tropical he began his studiesof coraciiforms.Illness thing,"where they should go, the answerwas plaguedhim for muchof his late career He always:"Go seeMoynihan's operation in Pan- seemedto havepicked up everypossible dis- ama." But Martin did not welcomeeveryone. easethat the tropicshad to offer Malaria and He made choices as to who seemed "worth- amoebiasisleft their marks on the always while" and shouldbe supported,and who wasp-waistedand flat-buttockedMartin. How- shouldgo elsewhere.Researchers with similar ever,he had what I calleda "Lazarusdisposi- personalitieswent elsewhere,to Costa Rica, tion." Justwhen it lookedas if theparasites had Peru, and Brazil. Moynihan and his growing won, Martin would bounce back with a smile groupwere viewed as being arrogant and dif- and his pipe. ficult. Althoughacademics often pride them- I knew Martin Moynihan for 36 years. He hired me because,like the othersthat followed, selveson the number of their graduatestu- dents,Martin was diffidentin this regard.But my work"amused him." WhenI firstmet him, he lookedlike SalvadorDali, for he sportedan legionsof discipleswill attestthat his sheer almost 5-inch waxed mustache, wore a Bond force of personalitywas a magnet.Dinner par- ties at Martin's houses were famous for the cui- street suit, and carried a proper British um- sine and wine ad libitum. Ideas were fleshed out brella. He remainedan elegantthough less dandyfigure for the restof his life. The photo and attacked. Fellow researchers were rated is typical. He had a reputationfor ragesand andberated. The taxonomy of who wasgood-- suddenchanges of mood.In the earlyyears he "First Rate, First Rate," usually only Darwin, was alwaysfiring off his resignationbecause versus those who were "Second Rate, First thingswere not going his way. It waspure the- Rate," Mayr and occasionallyTinbergen-- ater. changedwith eachparty. Science,art, history, Martin wasa gentlemanin the truesense of and politicswere flashedaround the tableby theword, and perhaps the most intelligent per- Martin. He invited intellectual attack. son that I have ever met. His breath of knowl- By 1974his frustrationwith guiding an or- edge was awe-inspiring.He was my director ganization that had grown logarithmically and my friend. The historyof Sciencehas a reacheda peak,and by sheerdetermination he placefor a man like him. We asornithologists chosehis successorfrom oneof his early Mayr shouldbe very proudthat he wasone of us.