Dean Amadon
Dean Arthur Amadon (born June 5, 1912 in Milwaukee , Wisconsin , † January 12, 2003 in Tenafly , New Jersey ) was an American ornithologist . His research focus was the taxonomy of birds of prey .
Life
Even as a child, Dean Amadon was fascinated by bird watching. In 1919, he and his parents moved to a dairy farm in Cattaraugus County, western New York . In 1930 Dean Amadon became a member of the American Ornithologists' Union . In 1934 he received his bachelor's degree from Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva , New York . At this college he was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa . From 1936 to 1937 he worked as a wildlife management technician for the Connecticut State Bird, Fish and Game Department. In 1937, he was by Frank M. Chapman as a curator for the bird egg collection of the American Museum of Natural History hired. Amadon learned the bird system under the influence of the director Ernst Mayr . In 1942 he married Octavia Tavvy Gardella. From this marriage the daughters Susan and Emily emerged. In the same year he joined the United States Armed Forces Medical Service and served in the Pacific. In Hawaii, he worked on the control of insects and rodents and studied the bubonic plague in rats.
From April 1944 to August 1945 Amadon was stationed with the United States Army on Oahu and Hawaii . In his spare time he studied the bellows material of the Bernice P. Bishop Museum and operational field studies on clothes birds , of which he his dissertation written and 1947 at the Cornell University 's Ph.D. attained.
After the war, Amadon devoted himself to working in the bird department of the American Museum of Natural History . From 1957 to 1973 he was chairman and chief curator of this department. After his departure in 1973 he was appointed curator emeritus.
Amadon was a member of the American Ornithologists' Union for 72 years. From 1965 to 1966 he was president of this organization. From 1962 he worked for several years in the International Ornithological Committee. In 1981 he became an honorary member of the British Ornithologists' Union .
In addition to his doctoral thesis, which was published in 1950 under the title The Hawaiian honeycreepers (Aves, Drepaniidae) in the "Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History", Eagles, Hawks and Falcons of the World belong to the standard reference works on the raptor systematics , as well as Curassows and Related Birds , which he wrote together with Jean Théodore Delacour , to his most important books.
Dedication names
Dean Amadon, among others, the following taxa are named: Carduelis crassirostris amadoni (subspecies of Dickschnabelzeisigs ) Lampornis viridipallens amadoni (subspecies of the Green-throated nymph ) Treron pompadora amadoni (subspecies of Pompadourtaube ) Andropadus virens amadoni (subspecies of Grünbülbüls ), Hirundo aethiopica amadoni ( Subspecies of the white throat swallow ) and Coracina welchmani amadonis (subspecies of the Solomon caterpillar ).
Works (selection)
- 1942: Birds Collected During the Whitney South Sea Expedition: Notes on Some Non-passerine Genera
- 1947: A Review of the Dicaeidae (with Ernst Mayr)
- 1951: Taxonomic Notes on the Australian Butcher-Birds (Family Cracticidae)
- 1950: The Hawaiian honeycreepers (Aves, Drepaniidae)
- 1952: Notes on the Mathews' Collection of Australian Birds: The Order Ciconiiformes
- 1953: Land Birds of America (with Robert Cushman Murphy)
- 1955: A Child's Book of Wild Birds (with Alexander Seidel)
- 1956: Birds of the Archbold Biological Station, Lake Placid, Florida
- 1964: Taxonomic Notes on Birds of Prey
- 1966: Birds Around the World: A Geographical Look at Evolution and Birds
- 1968: Eagles, Hawks and Falcons of the World . 2 volumes. (with Leslie H. Brown , illustrated by David Morrison Reid Henry )
- 1973: Curassows and Related Birds (with Jean Delacour)
- 1983: The Snail Kite in Florida
- 1988: Hawks and owls of the world: a distributional and taxonomic list with The genus Otus by Joe T. Marshall and Ben F. King. (with John Bull)
literature
- Walter J. Bock: Obituaries Dean Amadon, 1912-2003 In: Ibis (2003), 145, pp. 716-717
- Wolfgang Saxon: Dean Amadon, an Authority On Birds of Prey, Dies at 90 In: New York Times . Wednesday January 15, 2003 edition. Online
- Lester Leroy Short : In Memoriam: Dean Amadon, 1912-2003 . In: The Auk, Vol. 120, No. 4 (October 2003), pp. 1195-1198, JSTOR 4090290
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Amadon, Dean |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Amadon, Dean Arthur (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American ornithologist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 5, 1912 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Milwaukee , Wisconsin |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 12, 2003 |
| Place of death | Tenafly , New Jersey |