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C. J. Ries – Creating the Proavis: bird origins in the art and science of Gerhard Heilmann 1913–1926.
Between 1912 and 1916, the Danish artist and graphic designer Gerhard Heilmann published a series of articles in the journal of the Danish Ornithological Society. From the outset, Heilmann’s work aroused international interest, and in 1926 it was published in English under the title The origin of birds, setting the international agenda for research in bird evolution for the next 40 years. In Denmark, however, Heilmann’s highly original work was generally ignored or even ridiculed by zoologists.
This paper presents an account of those factors and events that allowed Heilmann to complete the transformation from absolute amateur to international authority on the intricate issue of bird evolution and bird-dinosaur relationships. It demonstrates how Heilmann’s artistic abilities played an important role in securing him international renown as a palaeontologist, while at the same time his lack of scientific credentials led to his complete isolation from the Danish zoological establishment. More particularly, Heilmann’s work is shown to have developed alongside and in connection to another classic work: On growth and form (1917) by the Scottish zoologist D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson.
KEY WORDS: The origin of birds – evolution – dinosaurs – Denmark – D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson.
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T. R. Birkhead & S. Van Balen – Unidirectional hybridization in birds: an historical review of bullfinch (Pyrrhula pyrrhula) hybrids.
Hybridization occurs among many bird species in nature and many more in captivity, and hybridization has important implications for the speciation process. Bird-fanciers have produced hybrids between the canary (Serinus canaria) and various finch species since at least 1600. Some finch species exhibit unidirectional hybridization in which males of species A can successfully hybridize with females of species B, but not vice versa. The bullfinch (Pyrrhula pyrrhula) is thought to be such a species, with only females capable of producing hybrid offspring with the domesticated canary and other finches. We review historical and more recent records of alleged male Pyrrhula pyrrhula × Serinus canaria hybrids and conclude that there is no convincing evidence of their existence, but there are sufficient independent records to suggest that contrary to what is generally believed, hybrids from a male bullfinch and female canary may occur, albeit extremely rarely. We also suggest ways in which hybrids from a male bullfinch and female canary can be verified in future.
KEY WORDS: Canary – Serinus canaria – hybrids – bullfinch – Pyrrhula pyrrhula – unidirectional
hybrid.
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P. Foster – The Gibraltar collections: Gilbert White (1720–1793) and John White (1727–1780), and the naturalist and author Giovanni Antonio Scopoli (1723–1788).
Gilbert White’s preparation of Selborne (1789) was significantly influenced by his tutoring of his brother, John, at Gibraltar. John White lived at Gibraltar as chaplain to the garrison from 1756 to 1772. Prompted by his brother, he began to study natural history during the last few years of his chaplaincy and sent to England (for study by his brother) several consignments of specimens across the entire field of natural history; he also wrote for advice about his studies to the naturalist Giovanni Scopoli and, on return to England, prepared for publication a “Fauna Calpensis”.
KEY WORDS: “Fauna Calpensis” – Hirundo rupestris – flamingo – Panorpa coa – Nemoptera bipennis.
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A. MacGregor – William Huddesford (1732–1772): his role in reanimating the Ashmolean Museum, his collections, researches and support network.
Between 1755 and 1772 the fortunes of the ailing Ashmolean Museum at Oxford were turned round through the efforts of a youthful and industrious keeper, William Huddesford. His modest demeanour, combined with a willingness to seek advice from naturalists more experienced than himself, led Huddesford into lengthy correspondence with a number of influential contemporaries, notably William Borlase, much of which survives to shed light on curatorial preoccupations of the day; so too do the inventories which he compiled, from which information on the network of contributors to the collection can be reconstructed. Huddesford also had an impressive publication record, particularly in bringing into print new editions of works based on specimens that had come to form part of the Ashmolean’s collections, including Martin Lister’s Historia conchyliorum and Edward Lhwyd’s Lithophylacii britannici ichnographia. Documentation survives for all of these exercises, and combines to provide important insights into eighteenth-century museum practice.
KEY WORDS: William Borlase – Edward Lhwyd – Martin Lister – Oxford – cataloguing.
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S. L. Olson & J. N. Lund – Whalers and woggins: a new vocabulary for interpreting some early accounts of the great auk and penguins.
The overlooked word “woggin”, with many variants, was widely used by Yankee whalers for both the great auk (Pinguinus impennis) and for penguins (Spheniscidae), as documented in numerous logbooks and journals and at least two published sources. Although in use from at least 1762 until the 1860s, this word appears to be entirely unknown in scholarly literature and merits wider recognition both for understanding early accounts and for its potential for revealing new information about the extinct great auk.
KEY WORDS: etymology – Pinguinus impennis – Spheniscidae – whaling.
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S. L. Olson, L. Overstreet & J. N. Lund – An alca-bibliographical study of The English pilot: the history of its account of the great auk (Alcidae: Pinguinus impennis).
Bibliographical details in the biological literature concerning an account and figure of the great auk (Pinguinus impennis) that appeared in the navigational guide known as The English pilot: the fourth book are largely erroneous. The first edition of this work appeared in 1689, but the great auk account in question did not appear until the edition of 1716 and was carried through all later editions until the final one in 1794. By that time, the information was probably very much out of date due to the rapid over-exploitation of the birds.
KEY WORDS: ËÈAlca impennis – Newfoundland – penguin – pengvin – pengwin.
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A. Zemanek, A. Ubrizsy Savoia & B. Zemanek – The beginnings of ecological thought in the Renaissance: an account based on the Libri picturati A. 18–30 collection of water-colours.
During the Renaissance ecological thinking emerged both in printed scientific works and in pictures showing plants against the background of their natural environment. A unique source for the history of plant ecology is the Libri picturati A. 18–30 collection of water-colours kept at the Jagiellonian Library in Cracow (Poland). This collection consists of 13 volumes of plant pictures, and contains about 1,800 images illustrating more than 1,000 taxa mainly from north-western Europe and the Mediterranean region, but also from Asia and America. Some of these pictures match with woodcuts in various works by famous Flemish botanists, mainly Charles de l’Écluse (Carolus Clusius) (1526–1609). Both the illustrations and their short annotations provide a synthetic review of the ecology of the Renaissance period. The paper deals with ecological issues which are found in the collection such as information on the climatic and edaphic requirements of some species, on plants occurring in various habitats and plant communities, plants representing principal growth forms, descriptions of particular adaptations to specific living conditions, for example the halophyte community of sea coasts or the parasitic flowering plants, and phenological observations. These trends can also be seen in printed publications of that time, and this collection mirrors them especially closely.
KEY WORDS: Renaissance botany – plant pictures – history of ecology – Charles de l’Écluse – Carolus Clusius.
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J. F. M. Clark – “The eyes of our potatoes are weeping”: the rise of the Colorado beetle as an insect pest.
This paper draws upon a prominent example of the fears and strategies surrounding the movements of an insect “pest” in the late nineteenth century. As a menace from the New World, the Colorado beetle carried considerable cultural freight. By examining the American, Canadian, and British responses to the threat of an “alien” species, this paper will shed light on the politics of expertise in the natural world. Nineteenth-century experts and commentators saw the Colorado beetle as the most visible manifestation of the possible dangers of increasing mass monocultural production and international trade and movement. Moreover, they met this threat with the mass application of inorganic insecticides.
KEY WORDS: history of entomology – biological imperialism – insecticides – Paris green – pest
– professionalization.
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D. Q. King – A checklist of sources of the botanical illustrations in the Leo Grindon Herbarium, The Manchester Museum.
The Grindon Herbarium is unusual in having a very high proportion of botanical illustrations and articles integrated into its systematic arrangement of the specimens. Hitherto unpublished extracts from Grindon’s own history and description of his herbarium reveal his intentions in regard to the herbarium’s combined specimen and documentary content. An appendix based on new work in the herbarium, listing virtually all significant source publications, example illustrations and their locations, provides a guide to this aspect of the Grindon Herbarium, and gives some indication of the scope of botanical illustration and literature available to such botanists at the time.
KEYWORDS: annotated herbaria – history of herbaria – history of collecting.
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J. M. Camarasa & N. Ibáñez – Joan Salvador and James Petiver: a scientific correspondence (1706–1714) in time of war.
At the time of the war of the Spanish Succession (1705–1714), Joan Salvador and James Petiver, two apothecaries with an impassioned interest in understanding nature, began a long and fruitful correspondence that would only come to an end with Petiver’s death. When this exchange of letters began, Salvador was a 20-year old Catalan apothecary who had just spent two years travelling through France and Italy learning about botany and natural history with some of the best teachers at that time. Petiver, who was 20 years older, was a member of the Royal Society, director of the Chelsea Physic Garden and a well-known figure in London. This paper sets out and discusses the correspondence (which is quite exceptionally complete) between these two naturalists during the wartime period between the end of 1706 and the fall of Barcelona on 11 September 1714. Their letters reflect the obstacles they had to face as a result of war and how they overcame them, and they also explain the reciprocal role played by both correspondents in their respective collections and libraries.
KEY WORDS: Catalonia – collections – history of science – War of the Spanish Succession.
En mig de la Guerra de Successió d’Espanya (1705–1714), Joan Salvador i James Petiver, dos apotecaris curiosos i apassionats pel coneixement de la natura inicien una llarga i fructífera correspondència, que perdurarà fins a la mort de Petiver. El primer, català, és encara, quan comença aquest “comerç”, un jove de poc més de vint anys que acaba de passar dos anys viatjant per França i Itàlia i aprenent botànica i història natural amb alguns dels millors mestres del seu temps. El segon, anglès, és vint anys més vell i una personalitat ben coneguda a Londres, membre de la Royal Society i director del jardí dels apotecaris de Chelsea. L’article recull i comenta la correspondència (excepcionalment completa) intercanviada entre aquests dos naturalistes durant el període de guerra que va de finals del 1706 fins a la caiguda de Barcelona l’11 de Setembre de 1714, reflecteix elsj¼ntrebancs que els imposa la situació bèl·lica i com els superen i explica el paper recíproc de cada un dels corresponsals en les respectives col·leccions i biblioteques.
KEY WORDS: Catalunya – col·leccions – història de la ciència – guerra de Successió d’Espanya.
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W. D. Allmon – The evolution of accuracy in natural history illustration: reversal of printed illustrations of snails and crabs in pre-Linnaean works suggests indifference to morphological detail.
Most natural history illustrations published prior to about 1700 were engraved as drawn and then printed backwards. This is noticeable, however, only for some groups of organisms, such as snails and some crabs, that are not bilaterally symmetrical. The most likely hypothesis for this is that most pre-eighteenth-century engravers, artists, and authors were indifferent to whether such illustrations were presented backwards or forwards. Illustrations of snail shells were not universally printed rightway-forward until the early to mid-eighteenth century, when standards of accuracy in natural history illustration improved as a result of the combined effects of a number of changes in scientific practice, including increasing collecting, publishing, and encyclopedism.
KEY WORDS: sinistral snail shells –gastropod shells – Mark Catesby.
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S. P. Dance – Savouring The edible mollusks of M. S. Lovell
M. S. Lovell’s The edible mollusks of Great Britain and Ireland has been largely ignored and the identity of its author misconstrued. The history of this scarce publication is reviewed and the significant differences between the first edition of 1867 and the second of 1884 are indicated. The recently resolved mystery of its authorship is discussed.
KEY WORDS: Mollusca – Matilda Sophia Lovell – Thomas Bell – G. B. Sowerby – C. M. Yonge – Lovell Reeve – Elizabeth David – Sir John Gardner Wilkinson
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