[obol] FW: Short-tailed Albatross specimen records request

[Alan Contreras]

Any help for Paul? Contact him directly please.

-- 
Alan Contreras
EUGENE, OREGON
acontrer at mindspring.com


------ Forwarded Message
> From: Paul Collins <pcollins at sbnature2.org>
> Date: Fri, 26 Jan 2007 16:36:38 -0800
> To: Alan Contreras <acontrer at mindspring.com>
> Subject: RE: Short-tailed Albatross specimen records request
> 
> Hi Alan: 
> 
> Pam mentioned that she had contacted you about the study I have been
> engaged in regarding compiling the pre-1900 records (specimen and
> sightings) of Short-tailed Albatrosses in the eastern and northern
> Pacific.  To date I have been able to log nearly 150 specimens (live
> mounts, skins, skulls and/or skeletons) of this species in ornithology
> collections around the world.  I feel that I still have a ways to go
> with this before I will feel confident that I have data captured the
> majority of these early specimen and sighting records.  Another aspect
> of the work I have undertaken is to also track down archaeological and
> paleontological occurrences of this species from sites in California,
> Oregon, Washington, Canada and Alaska.  I am interested in at least
> logging any published records of the occurrence of this species having
> been found in archaeological and paleontological sites.  I am not going
> to attempt to actually examine faunal material or fossils in collections
> to document all occurrences of this species.  This is just too much work
> for this project.  So I am asking if you know of any published
> archaeological studies where this species has been documented for this
> part of the Pacific.  If so, I could use citations to these types of
> papers.  I would also be very interested in hearing about any
> Short-tailed Albatrosses you find in some of the less studied
> collections and institutions around Oregon.  There is a record of a
> specimen that was apparently deposited at the Agricultural College in
> Oregon in the late 1880s.  However, I have yet to find this specimen or
> the name of the institution where this specimen currently resides.
> 
> Pam sent me the relevant pages from Range Bayer's publications that
> mentioned Short-tailed Albatross specimens.  She sent me the pages for
> specimens in the US National Museum collection.  I am not sure if there
> are Short-tailed Albatross specimens listed for any of the other
> collections that Bayer compiled records from.  If you have that
> publication, any chance you could double check to see if any records are
> listed for some of the other Museum holdings checked by Bayer?  Turns
> out that I had already captured the records that Bayer mentioned from
> the USNM.  
>  
> I do appreciate your assistance with the above requests.  If you have
> any questions feel free to touch base with me.
> 
> Paul W. Collins 
> Curator of Vertebrate Zoology
> Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History
> 2559 Puesta Del Sol
> Santa Barbara, CA  93105
> (805) 682-4711 X 154
>