Melvin Alvah Traylor, Jr.

Who was Melvin Alvah Traylor, Jr.?

Melvin Alvah Traylor Jr. was an American ornithologist. He was the son of Chicago banker Melvin Alvah Traylor and Mrs. Dorothy Y. Traylor. Traylor was Lieutenant with the marines and served on Guadalcanal during World War II in 1942 where he was awarded with the Silver Star medal. As a Marine Corp officer, Mel was severely injured during the Battle of Tarawa in the Pacific theatre, where he lost one eye and suffered arm and upper body wounds during the famous beach assault. After the war Traylor continued his work for the Field Museum which he had started in 1937. He made expeditions to Africa, to South America, and to Asia. In 1960 he was among the members of the World Book Encyclopedia Scientific Expedition to the Himalaya led by Sir Edmund Hillary. In 1956 Traylor became assistant curator of birds in the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. Since his retirement in the 1980s he was working as curator emeritus for the Field Museum.

Traylor was among the authors of Check-list of Birds of the World, a standard reference work with sixteen volumes published between 1931 and 1987. Traylor described species like the Tana River Cisticola and the Colombian Screech-owl, and the genus Zimmerius. He made further revisions of the family Tyrannidae. The Orange-eyed Flycatcher is named in his honour. Traylor and Paynter were awarded with the Elliott Coues Award by the American Ornithologists' Union in 2001.