Roy Cline Hallman
Roy Cline Hallman
Roy Cline Hallman was a lifelong resident of Florida. He was born at Bartow, April 24, 1894, and passed away in Panama City on December 7, 1972. Roy became interested in birds as a small boy. Like many others of that period, his interest was stimulated by collecting birds' eggs-a hobby he maintained all his life but practiced little after the 1930's.
I met Roy Hallman in March, 1931. The occasion was the publication of his note on the nesting of the Black Vulture (Coragyps atratus) in the palmetto clumps on Anastasia Island. l had never seen a "buzzard" nest, which circumstance Roy generously agreed to change, and promptly did.
This was the beginning of a warm and lasting friendship. My first "expeditions" to the Kissimmee Prairie, Cape Sable, Pelican Island, Gulf Hammock, and other such exciting places were with Roy Hallman. Wayland Shannon was with us on several of these outings, and we frequently met with Donald and Wray Nicholson and Joseph Howell, Jr.
Hallman moved from St. Augustine to Panama City in 1936, after which I saw him much less often, though I did get afield with him there on several occasions, a particularly memorable one being the time he showed me my first nest of the Cuban Snowy Plover (Charadrius alexandrinus tenuirostris), which he had found on a sandy island near Port St. Joe.
Hallman was quick to detect new birds, even those with subtle differences from familiar species. He was not inclined to collect birds regularly, but did not hesitate to do so when the object was a bird not previously recorded in the area. It was his painstaking field observation that led to his adding such obscure birds as the Thick-billed Redwing (Agelaius phoeniceus fortis) and Brewer's Blackbird (Euphagus cynocephalus) to the Florida list. Hallman published a fair number of his outstanding ornithological records, but we would all be richer if he had been a less modest man.
Roy Hallman is survived by his wife, Mrs. Josephine Hallman, of Panama City.
Samuel A. Grimes
4627 Peachtree Circle E, Jacksonville, Florida 32207.
