One of the BOC founders at the Mona Hotel on 5 October 1892 was Count Tommaso Salvadori, distinguished ornithologist and close associate of Richard Bowdler Sharpe (see Founders’ Blog no.1). Salvadori, vice-director of the Museum of Zoology at Turin University, had a long association with the BOU, becoming a Foreign Member in 1872 and an Honorary Member in 1890, and with the British Museum (Natural History), which he first visited in 1877. In 1890 he was invited by Sharpe to work on three volumes of the British Museum’s Catalogue of Birds (vol. 20, Parrots, 1891; vol. 21, Pigeons, 1893; and vol. 27, Ducks, Tinamous, and Ratites, 1895. His Ibis obituary noted that his work was ‘characterized by scrupulous accuracy and industry… and it would be difficult to find any omissions or mistakes in the three volumes of the ‘Catalogue’ which claim his authorship.’
Salvadori attended the first three meetings of the Club, and at his final dinner on 16 November 1892 the Hon. Walter Rothschild said that he had named a new species of pigeon, Ptilopus salvadorii, ‘…in honour of Count Tommaso Salvadori whose knowledge of the family of pigeons is unrivalled and only equalled by his splendid work on the Birds of New Guinea’. In 1879, Sharpe had previously noted that the two volumes of this work are ‘remarkable for the erudition and care which has accompanied their production’.
After his return to Italy in 1892, Salvadori remained in constant contact with Sharpe, including in regard to the Italian views on the trinomial debate. In 1904, he wrote to Sharpe about the trinomial system ‘… both as an ornithologist and dear friend …’ concluding ‘that the system … is absurd … Sensible people will laugh at us if we continue in this way’. The ending of the letter however is very revealing of the kind of man he was:
‘I should like very much to have the opportunity of visiting again old England and the many friends who remember me! I much doubt that there is much chance for this. There are too many persons who expect help from me, and four children among them. Can I go about spending the money which is necessary for them? Let us do our duty first of all. My daughter as you know is back with me, together with her child.’
Count Adlardo Tommaso Salvadori Paleotti was born in Umbria on 30 September 1835 of an Italian father, Count Luigi Salvadori, and an English mother, Ethelin Welby (daughter of Adlard Welby of Lincoln and his mistress Mary Hutchinson). He married his cousin Bertha King, daughter of Mary Hutchinson’s daughter Bertha Welby and they had four children.
He studied medicine in Rome and Pisa, and in 1860 took part in Garibaldi’s ‘Expedition of the Thousand’ to Sicily, becoming medical officer of his battalion and taking part in the battle of S. Maria di Capua. He had already begun his studies in ornithology, visiting Sardinia in 1862 and subsequently publishing a Catalogue of the Birds of Sardinia in the Proceedings of the Italian Society of Natural Science. He determined to dedicate his life to natural history, and in 1863 he was appointed Assistant in the Museum of Zoology of the University of Turin, becoming vice-director of the museum in 1879, a post he held for the rest of his life. The website of the Fermo Museum (which inherited Salvadori’s ornithological collection through his great -granddaughter) notes that ‘During his long years there [as vice-director of the University of Turin’s Zoological Museum] he oversaw the expansion and reorganisation of the ornithological section, bringing it up to the standards of the best collections in Europe.’
Salvadori was a specialist on the birds of Asia. He studied the substantial collections of birds of these regions held by the Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Genova, and in 1877 visited museums in Paris, London (BM[NH]), Berlin, Leiden, and Vienna to collect material for his major work on the ornithology of New Guinea and the Moluccas. Whilst at the BM(NH) he conducted a lengthy correspondence with Edward Ramsey, Curator of the Australian Museum in Sydney, about the transfer of Soloman Island bird skins to Italy via Australia.
During his career he published about 350 papers in Italian and English and, according to Count E. Arrigoni degli Oddi’s 1924 account of Salvadori’s life in the Rivista Italiana di Ornitologia, described 27 new genera and 490 new species (although not all remain valid).
Many species of birds are named after him, including Salvadori’s Pheasant (Lophura inornata) Salvadori’s Fig Parrot (Psittaculirostris salvadorii), Yellow-capped Pygmy Parrot (Micropsitta keiensis), Salvadori Nightjar (Caprimulgus pulchellus), Salvadori’s Antwren (Myrmotherula minor), Salvadori’s Eremomela (Eremomela salvadorii), Salvadori’s Seedeater (Serinus xantholaemus), and Salvadori’s Teal (Salvadorina waigiuensis).
Salvadori died in 1923. In its obituary, the leading US ornithological journal, Auk, noted that Salvadori was ‘one of the most indefatigable ornithologists of the past generation and one who throughout his life was a leader in the advancement of ornithological knowledge’. The BOU journal Ibis, in a fulsome obituary in 1924, wrote that ‘Salvadori was a great favourite among the older members of the Union of the Victorian era. His geniality and charm are well remembered during his long sojourn in London.’
He was a remarkable man and an illustrious member of the founding group of the BOC at its inaugural meeting in the Mona Hotel in 1892.
Salvadori working in the bird collection of the BM(NH) in the early 1890’s
Author Information
Chris Storey
