Herbert Stevens (1877-1964): F.Z.S., F.R.G.S.,M.S.P.F.(M.F.F.I.), M.B.O.C. Collector, Benefactor and Enigma. By Amberley Moore February 2023 At the meeting of the British Ornithologists’ Club on November 12 1924, a new Member, Herbert Stevens, was introduced by the Chairman – “Mr Stevens has been collecting birds and mammals in Tonkin (Vietnam) for the British Museum under the Salman Godman Fund. Unfortunately, through the capsizing of a river steamer, Mr Stevens lost all his notes and photographs, and […]
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BOC Blog
Is the Crimson-crested Turaco a species in its own right?
Originally, three turaco species were described from the Horn of Africa: the widespread White-cheeked Turaco Tauraco leucotis, the Crimson-crested Turaco T. donaldsoni, and the Ruspoli’s Turaco T. ruspolii, the latter two being endemic Ethiopian taxa. Subsequent taxonomic revisions relegated the Crimson-crested Turaco to a subspecies of the White-cheeked Turaco, and this classification is now of long standing. This revision was the result of an ambiguous interpretation of their actual ranges due to a lack of […]
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Beneath the feet of the dodo – a new ground thrush from Mauritius
The Mascarene Islands of Mauritius, Réunion and Rodrigues, situated in the southwest Indian Ocean, once harboured a number of diverse bird species, most notably the Mauritian Dodo. Unlike most other oceanic islands, the Mascarenes were in pristine condition when first discovered by humans, who recorded important but often vague details in ships’ logs and journals. The arrival of Europeans at the end of the 16th century, with their accompanying commensal animals, proved disastrous for the […]
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Meet the Author: Christine Jackson
Gehan de Silva Wijeyeratne interviews Christine Jackson on her book ‘A Newsworthy Naturalist: The Life of William Yarrell’ published in association with the British Ornithologists’ Club (BOC). Reproduced with permission from the Quarterly Newsletter (Issue No. 266, August 2022) of the London Natural History Society. Christine E Jackson attended Greenhead High School, a grammar school in Huddersfield and Manchester Library School leading to the qualification A.L.A. (Associate of the Library Association). She was Librarian […]
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Poo in paradise: a week of fieldwork on Heron Island
When I decided to pursue my passion for poo at PhD level, I never imagined I would end up on Heron Island: a (very) small coral cay on the Great Barrier Reef, Australia. Just half a mile long, this sub-tropical island is home to a huge variety of biodiversity. So much so that David Attenborough opted to film there. Fig 1 Heron Island, credit: Andrea Estandía
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Checklist Series – translated!
No, not all of them, just the one for Cuba. It’s number 26 and I strongly advise you to buy it (the printed version, in English), although I may be biased, being one of the authors. Way back last century, in 1975, two of Cuba’s most distinguished ornithologists (and naturalists) wrote a Catálogo de las Aves de Cuba. I don’t think I really need to translate that. Although it was written in Spanish, all the […]
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