Harry Witherby

Henry Forbes Witherby ( October 7, 1873 - December 11, 1943 ; better known as Harry Witherby ) was a British ornithologist, author, editor and founder of British Birds magazine from 1907 .

Harry Forbes Witherby (1937)

The family company HF and G. Witherby , originally printers, began publishing bird books in the early 20th century.

From an early age, Witherby devoted himself to bird studies and traveled extensively. He visited Iran , the Kola Peninsula and the White Nile . He described the latter trip in 1902 in his book Bird Hunting on the White Nile .

In 1909 he started the first organized bird ringing in England. He then transferred responsibility for this to the British Trust for Ornithology , which continued the bird ringing until 1937.

Witherby was Chairman of the British Ornithologists 'Club from 1924 to 1929 and President of the British Ornithologists' Union from 1933 to 1938.

He was a founding member and former vice chairman of the British Trust for Ornithology . Witherby funded this organization primarily from the proceeds from the sale of its extensive collection of stuffed birds to the British Museum .

Between 1938 and 1941 Witherby published one of the most popular standard works on British bird life. The Handbook of British Birds appeared in five volumes and was published in five editions by 1988.

In 1937 he was awarded the BOU's Godman Salvin Medal .

Witherby first described bird species such as the obbial lark ( Spizocorys obbiensis ) and the Somali runner lark ( Alaemon hamertoni ).

Fonts

• with FCR Jourdain, Norman F. Ticehurst, Bernard W. Tucker: The Handbook of British Birds , 5 volumes, HF & G. Witherby, 1938 to 1941
  • An abridged version was published by Philip Hollom in 1952 and was published in its 5th edition in 1988

Literature on Witherby

• William Herbert Mullens, Harry Kirke Swann: A Bibliography of British Ornithology . 1917 / reprint 1986, ISBN 0-85486-098-3