Edgardo Moltoni

Edgardo Moltoni (born June 5, 1896 in Oneglia , Italy, † January 12, 1980 in Milan , Italy) was an Italian ornithologist .

Life

In 1920 Moltoni obtained a doctorate in natural sciences from the University of Turin . Shortly afterwards he became an assistant in the Department of Zoology and Vertebrate Anatomy, first in Sassari and then at the University of Cagliari .

In 1922 he became an employee at the Museum of Natural History in Milan, where he was appointed lecturer and was responsible for the bird collection and the precious ornithological library, which the heirs of Count Ercole Turati (1829-1881) had left the museum in 1884. In 1933 he became the museum's deputy director. In this position he continued the ornithological tradition of his predecessor Professor Giacinto Martorelli and undertook numerous avifaunistic excursions within Italy and to the Italian African colonies.

In 1943 almost all of the scientific material in the Milan Museum of Natural History was destroyed in an air raid. Together with director Bruno Parisi , he organized the reconstruction of the museum and acquired new zoological collections. In 1952 Moltoni became director of the museum and when it reopened, he was able to present the most extensive ornithological library in Italy to the public.

After his retirement in 1962, Moltoni devoted himself to bird studies on the Italian islands, where he made inventory lists of the avifauna of the Pelagie Islands , Elbas , Ischias , Pantellerias and the Aeolian Islands .

In addition to the publication of 450 scientific articles, Moltoni was editor of the journal "Rivista Italiana di ornitologia". His best-known contributions include publications on the avifauna of Angola , Somalia , Eritrea and Ethiopia . Moltoni wrote the first scientific descriptions of the acacia shrike and the amboim shrike .

In 1940 Edgardo Moltoni became a corresponding member and in 1975 an honorary member of the British Ornithologists' Union . In 1946 he became a corresponding member of the Zoological Society of London .

Works (selection)

• 1929: Selvaggina e caccie in Italia
• 1936: Gli uccelli fino ad oggi notificati per la Somalia Italiana
• 1940: Missione di studio al lago Tana volume quarto Raccolte ornitologiche nella regione del lago Tana Centro studi per l'Africa orientale italiana
• 1940: Raccolte ornitologiche nella regione del lago Tana
• 1940: Gli uccelli dell'Africa orientali italiani (3 volumes, the records for the fourth volume were lost in the museum fire of 1943)
• 1943: Gli uccelli della provincia di Aosta
• 1955: Pappagalli in liberta nei giardini pubblici di milano
• 1957: Museo di storia naturale
• 1958: Bruno Parisi 1884-1957 Naturalisti Trentini .
• 1960: Gli uccelli d'Italia
• 1964: L'ornitofauna della Sila (Calabria)

literature

• Carlo Violani: Edgardo Moltoni (obituary) In: The IBIS Issue 123, 1981.