Leaves

In view of the recent flurry of excitement over the Hammond's Flycatcher
found near Monkton, MD., I thought it might be of some interest to clarify
the name itself. William Alexander Hammond (1828-1900) was a physician -
specifically a neurologist - who was born in Annapolis, Md. and taught for
several years as Chairman of the Department of Physiology at the University
of Maryland School of Medicine. In 1862, Abraham Lincoln appointed Dr.
Hammond to be Surgeon-General of the United States Army, with a rank of
Brigadier General.  He held that post until 1864. Unfortunately, Hammond did
not get on well with Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, who court-martialled
Hammond on rather weak, fabricated charges. After leaving the military,
Hammond was vindicated in a second trial, but chose to remain in the
civilian world. He was appointed Professor of Psychiatry and Neurology at
Columbia Physicians and Surgeons Hospital in New York, where he taught until
retirement. Hammond authored a prominent neurology textbook and described a
disorder of infants characterized by writhing (athetoid) muscular movements,
which is known as Hammond's Disease.

 During his tenure as Surgeon General, Hammond befriended a young Hungarian
naturalist named John Xantus (Xantus Murrelet) who subsequently discovered
a unique flycatcher species in Fort Tejon, California. Xantus named the bird
Empidonax hammondii for his friend -  Hammond's Flycatcher.

Along with bill shape and color, primary projection, wing bars, and eye
rings, it's good to know something about the history of those whose eponyms
have been donated to ornithology, and which we use so freely. Good birding!

Bart Gershen

Darnestown, MD