Audubon to Xantus
The Lives of those Commemorated in North American Bird Names
Published on 12. May 2003
Book
Paperback/Softback
608 pages
978-0-12-487423-7 (ISBN)
Description
Audubon's Shearwater, Wilson's Phalarope, Albert's Towhee, Xantus' Murrelet: birds which every North American ornithologist will know. But what of the people after whom they are named? Who were they, when did they live and how important was their contribution to the study of ornithology in this continent which gradually opened up its secrets of the western newcomers who explored and documented its vast store of birdlife? In this book, Barbara and Richard Mearns continue their research into the people behind the names started in their previous book on the European eponyms, biographies for birdwatchers.
The 98 people commemorated in the current English and Latin names of birds in the American Ornithologists' Union checklist are a fascinating assembly. Travellers, explorers, collectors, museum taxonomists as well as their wives, daughters and mentors have all been immortalized in the bird names we use today. Although their claims to fame are diverse and capriciously determined by the chance and fashion of a developing taxonomy, they are as good a snapshot as any of the history of a new nation's study of birds.
The Mearns' extensive research into archives in the Americas and elsewhere have unearthed the achievements of virtually all of those concerned and provided contemporary portraits of the great majority. Acquaintance with this motley gallery of people cannot help but enrich the experience of seeing the new species or of spotting an old friend at one's regular birding patch. The birds themselves are not forgotten either. A wonderful collection of over 120 species is pictured in the beautiful art of Dana Gardner.
Following the style and format of biographies for birdwatchers, this new volume is dedicated to over 130 birds of America, North of Mexico. Ninety-eight biographies are presented including Steller (jay, eider, eagle), Audubon (shearwater, oriole), Baird (sandpiper, sparrow), Swainson (hawk, thrush, warbler) and Wilson (sex species?). Each biography
The 98 people commemorated in the current English and Latin names of birds in the American Ornithologists' Union checklist are a fascinating assembly. Travellers, explorers, collectors, museum taxonomists as well as their wives, daughters and mentors have all been immortalized in the bird names we use today. Although their claims to fame are diverse and capriciously determined by the chance and fashion of a developing taxonomy, they are as good a snapshot as any of the history of a new nation's study of birds.
The Mearns' extensive research into archives in the Americas and elsewhere have unearthed the achievements of virtually all of those concerned and provided contemporary portraits of the great majority. Acquaintance with this motley gallery of people cannot help but enrich the experience of seeing the new species or of spotting an old friend at one's regular birding patch. The birds themselves are not forgotten either. A wonderful collection of over 120 species is pictured in the beautiful art of Dana Gardner.
Following the style and format of biographies for birdwatchers, this new volume is dedicated to over 130 birds of America, North of Mexico. Ninety-eight biographies are presented including Steller (jay, eider, eagle), Audubon (shearwater, oriole), Baird (sandpiper, sparrow), Swainson (hawk, thrush, warbler) and Wilson (sex species?). Each biography
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 232 mm
Width: 190 mm
Weight
1039 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-12-487423-7 (9780124874237)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Content
James William Abert; Edward Adams; Dr Alexandre; Charles Andre Allen; Mary Virginia Anderson; John James Audubon; John Bachman; Lucy Hunter Baird; Spencer Fullerton Baird; Pierre Etienne Theodore Ballieu; John Barrow; William Bartram; John Graham Bell; Charles Emil Bendire; Thomas Bewick; Charles Reed Bishop; Anna blackburne and Ashton Blackburne; Charles Lucien Jules; Laurent Bonaparte; Zenaide Laetitia Julie Bonaparte; Matteo Botteri; Johann Friedrich von Brandt; Aglae Brelay; Thomas Mayo Brewer; Walter Lawry Buller; James Bulwer; John Cassin; John Henry Clark; William Clark; James Cook; William Cooper; Charles Barney Cory; Louis Marie Pantaleon Costa; Marquis de Beauregard; Darius Nash Couch; Grace Coues; Federico Craveri; Sanford Ballard Dole; Johann Reinhold Forster; John Franklin; William Gambel; George Robert Gray; Johannes Christopher Gundlach; William Alexander Hammond; Edward Harris; Adolphus Lewis Heermann; John Steven Henslow; Jens Wilken Hornemann; William Hutton; Robert Hennicott; Jared Potter Kirtland; Friedrich Beinrich von Kittletz; George Newbold Lawrence; William Elford Leach; John Lawrence LeConte; Marie Clemence Lesson; Meriwether Lewis; Felix Louis L'Herminier and Ferdinand Joseph L'Herminier; Thomas Lincoln; Robert Mccormick; John Porter McCown; Peter McDouglall; William Macgillivray; Charles Leslie McKay; Anna Massena, Duchess of Rivioli; Eenesto Mauri; George Campbell Munro; Adolphe Simon Neboux; Thomas Nuttall; Harry Church Oberholser; Henry C. Palmer; the Brothers Paris; Robert Ridgeway; Bernard Rogan Ross; James Clark Ross; Edward Sabine; Thomas Say; Philip Lutley Sclater; Winfield Scott; Gideon B. Smith; Isaac Sprague; George Wilhelm Steller; Hugh Edwin Strickland; William Swainson; John Eliot Thayer; Charles Haskins Townsend; John Kirk Townsand; Thomas Stewart Traill; Henry Baker Traill; William Baker Tristram; William Sanson; Vaux; Jules Pierre Verreaux and Edward Verreaux; Josiah Dwight Whitney; Robert Stockton Williamson; Alexander Wilson; Wollweber; Charles Wright; John Xantus.