Studies in Neotropical Ornithology Honoring Ted Parker

Description

The future of Neotropical ornithology changedforever when Ted Parker died in August 1993. We'll never know exactly how it was changed,but we know it is going to be different without him. Most of his first 40 years were spent developingan unrivaledknowledgeof naturalhistory,andhe hadjust begunto acquiretheconfidence and stature to apply that backgroundto big problems. His death was, therefore, a multidimensionaltragedy.The first two papersin this volume provide many details on Ted and his career,thus allowing this prefaceto be brief. Soon after Ted's death his legions of friends searchedfor ways to expresstheir appreciationfor his friendship and his influence.This volume is one of thoseefforts. A primary goalwasto completeasmanyof Ted'sunpublishedmanuscriptsaspossible. Otherwise,the only initial criteriafor submissionof manuscriptswasthatthey involve Neotropical ornithology, that at least the lead author was one of Ted's friends, and that Ted would have enjoyedreadingthe manuscript.We all hopethat we succeeded in the latter; certainly Ted would be gratifiedto see so many of his favorite themes represented.Ted also would have appreciatedthe range in author experience,from "householdnames" in Neotropical ornithologyto studentsand non-professionalssubmitting their very first papersfor peer-review.He would also have appreciatedthe range in nationalitiesof the authorsas well as the number of authors(15) from countries in the Neotropics.