Extinct Birds
Extinct Birds (complete title: Extinct birds: an attempt to unite in one volume a short account of those birds which have become extinct in historical times: that is, within the last six or seven hundred years: to which are added a few which still exist, but are on the verge of extinction ) is a work by the British zoologist Walter Rothschild , which was published in 1907 in an edition of just 300 by Hutchinson and Co. in London . Each copy is registered and personally signed by Rothschild.
construction
The structure of the book is divided into three parts. In the first part, Rothschild presents literature on extinct bird species from 1590 to 1907 in chronological order, including several works on the dodo and studies on the extinct avifauna of the Mascarene and New Zealand . In the main part, 238 pages of bird taxa are described that were extinct before and after 1500, hypothetical species whose existence is only proven by drawings or written records, extremely rare but also today invalid species. The 45 color illustrations and four black and white drawings in the picture are by John Gerrard Keulemans , George Edward Lodge , Henrik Grönvold , Frederick William Frohawk and Joseph Smit .
Rothschild's work was often quoted in subsequent works on extinct bird species. So published Errol Fuller in 1987 an eponymous book in which he used illustrations from Extinct Birds and Rothschilds niece Miriam wrote the foreword. In 2012, Julian Pender Hume and Michael Walters also published a book of the same name in which many of the taxa mentioned in Rothschild's book are either viewed as doubtful or invalid.
criticism
In a review of the work in the journal The Auk in April 1907, the reviewer was disappointed. He criticized the fact that of the approximately 166 birds presented in the book, only 76 species are described, which became extinct between the 17th and 19th centuries, while 90 bird species are mentioned from the Mascarene , Madagascar or New Zealand , which only through subfossil bone material of the last 700 years have become known. It was also objected that, for example, the Bermuda petrel , a species of bird for which there was no evidence between the 17th century and the 1950s, was not taken into account. Of the 45 plates, some were criticized as not credible, as, for example, the tail of Ara erythrura is described as completely red in the text section, but a striking blue tip can be seen on the illustration.
literature
Primary literature
- Rothschild, Walter (1907): Extinct Birds ( online edition )
- Rothschild, Walter (1907): On extinct and vanishing birds. Proceedings of the 4th International Ornithological Congress 1905, London: 191-217.
Secondary literature
- Fuller, Errol (1987). Extinct Birds. Penguin Books (England). ISBN 978-0-670-81787-0 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Review on "Extinct Birds" in The Auk, April 1907 (PDF file; 173 kB)