I wonder how many readers of this list understood Dave Horn's brief post 
yesterday referring to the Cleveland harlequin duck:
"Where's Milt Trautman when we need him?":
        Trautman, a professor at OSU, curator at the biological museum, and 
expert on the birds and fishes of Ohio, was quite insistent about the 
importance of physical specimens to verify the occurrence of species. A 
hunter and fisher, he was known to deploy his net often to procure 
verifiable specimens of fishes and his shotgun for birds. However you 
may feel about this, his gun provided many records that added to the 
Ohio bird list; in fact, it was largely because of Trautman that so many 
birds many we may regard as Lake Erie specialties were collected instead 
as first Ohio records down in central Ohio: Eurasian Wigeon, Cinnamon 
Teal, King and Common Eiders, Black Scoter, Surf Scoter, Magnificent 
Frigatebird, Long-tailed Jaeger, Sabine’s Gull, Black-legged Kittiwake, 
Franklin’s Gull, etc. How many would accept these as sight records 
without specimens to prove them? Birders were known to object to his 
practice of shooting rare birds, some because he shot them before 
observers could see them, and others because he so obviously removed 
them forever from the outdoors, even while securing them a permanent 
place in the ornithological record, as well as museum drawers.
        Most of us would agree that the establishment of solid scientific first 
records trumps the importance of the chance that birders might add 
certain species to their lists. Still many of us also understand why 
members of the Columbus Audubon Society organized a watch to keep an eye 
on the first state record of a red-cockaded woodpecker to prevent 
Trautman from shooting it during its stay in a state park.
        I have a copy of a letter Milt wrote to Kark Maslowski in 1969, after 
the latter invited Trautman to come down to see a black-headed grosbeak 
in SW Ohio. Here is Trautman's tart reply:
        "Dear Karl: Thank you so much for notifying me of the Black-headed 
Grosbeak in Milford, Ohio. The record will be placed in the 
rapidly-expanding "fictional" list. I will not take the time to see it 
because it cannot be established as a factual record without collecting 
it...Accidentals actually mean very little; their real scientific 
interest lies in why or how they reached Ohio, by being wind-blown or 
through directional loss; in other words by either physical or mental 
deficiencies or both. There is little doubt in my mind that over the 
past 12,000 years every species of eastern North American birds and most 
western North American birds have been present and unobserved in Ohio at 
some time.
        My not accepting photographic proof is because even the actual specimen 
that is collected can be misidentified. A good example is the frequently 
published record of the Artic [sic] Loon Gavia arctica collected 19 
February 1909 in Ashtabula County. This was accepted by the AOU and 
everyone else as the only authentic Ohio record until the Oberlin 
collection, which housed it for almost 60 years, was incorporated in the 
Ohio State collections. Then we discovered it was a Red-throated Loon. 
The excellent photograph of the Rufous-necked Sandpiper seen in 
September in Ashtabula County is a fine photograph of a spring-plumaged 
[bird]...I was given a beautiful photograph of a Long-billed Dowitcher 
which I collected immediately after the picture was taken. The skin is 
unquestionably a Long-bill, the photo unquestionably a Short-bill 
because of the slight angle at which the picture of the head was taken.
        A few years ago 200 of us saw a Green-tailed Towhee within a mile of my 
house at a feeder. The owner of the feeding station where it constantly 
free-loaded called it "Rocky." Obviously a bird with a Christian name 
cannot be collected so the record will be forgotten in a few years, 
which I guess is the best thing. Were I to accept that record and your 
photographs I would of necessity have to accept records of over 10,000 
Red-legged Kittiwakes and California Gulls on Lake Erie and sight 
records of over 50 other species. The life of a scientist or a curator 
is not a popular or happy one."
        Few readers of this letter will, I think, agree with everything 
Trautman says, but we must acknowledge the contributions of his shotgun.
Bill Whan
Columbus

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