Solving the Dowitcher Problem: Frank Pitelka, Rollo Beck, and the Merced Wetlands

Abstract

The taxonomic status of the Long-billed (Limnodromus scolopaceus) and Short-billed (L. griseus) dowitchers remained unsettled and controversial for over 150 years until the publication of a now-legendary monograph (Geographic Variation and the Species Problem in the Shore-bird Genus Limnodromus) by University of California, Berkeley, ornithologist Frank Pitelka in 1950. The solution to the dowitcher “problem” began in 1945 when bird collector Rollo Beck arrived in Berkeley and presented to Pitelka, in dramatic fashion, boxes of dowitcher specimens he had collected from the wetlands of Merced County. This consequential encounter with tireless collector Beck inspired Pitelka to commence a years-long, museum-based study that clarified the taxonomic relations and geographical distribution of these similar and confusing shorebirds. This comprehensive study examined dowitcher morphology, molt, age and sex variation, areas of breeding, migration timing and routes, and ecology.  Multiple lines of evidence were presented to support the determination that the two dowitcher forms were indeed distinct species. A new subspecies of the Short-billed Dowitcher (L. griseus caurinus) also was described, which breeds from southwestern Alaska along the Pacific coast to northwest British Columbia. I present brief biographical sketches of Pitelka and Beck that touch on their careers and personalities. The major research results and conclusions in the monograph are summarized as well as the personal connections between the two men.