Ian Courtney Julian Galbraith

Ian Courtney Julian Galbraith (born August 18, 1925 ) is a British ornithologist . He is particularly interested in the stubborn family (Pachycephalidae).

Life

Galbraith received a Bachelor of Arts in 1951 and graduated from the University of Oxford with a Master of Arts in 1954 . From May 1953 to January 1954 he accompanied the evolutionary biologist Arthur Cain (1921-1999) on an expedition from the University of Oxford to the eastern Solomon Islands , where they discovered five new bird taxa on Guadalcanal . In September 1955, Galbraith became a curator at the Mollusc Department of the Natural History Museum in London. In February 1961 he replaced Reginald William Sims (1926–2012) as chief curator of the bird department, who from then on took over the department for annelids . From February to August 1964 he led the second of five Australian expeditions (1962–1968), which were funded by the Australian philanthropist and zoologist Harold Wesley Hall . This included Galbraith's wife Ebba and the ornithologist Shane A. Parker (1943–1992). In 1971 the bird collection of the Natural History Museum was transferred from London to Tring and in July 1976 Galbraith took over the management of the bird department from David William Snow . He retired in August 1985.

1955 Galbraith described together with Arthur Cain in the journal Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club , the Guadalcanal Scaly Thrush ( Zoothera turipavae ), the Guadalcanal Buschsänger ( Cichlornis turipavae ) and the subspecies Petroica pusilla dennisi of Pazifikscharlachschnäppers , Coracina welchmani amadonis of Solomon tracked catcher and Turdus poliocephalus sladeni the South Sea thrush . In the same year his publication Variation, relationships and evolution in the Pachycephala pectoralis superspecies (Aves, Muscicapidae) appeared . In 1962 he and his wife published the book Land birds of Guadalcanal and the San Cristoval group, Eastern Solomon Islands. 1974 he co-authored the book The Life of Birds Vol. 2 by Jean Dorst . In the same year Galbraith wrote the chapter Pachycephalidae in Pat Hall's book Birds of the Harold Hall Australian Expeditions 1962-1970 .

Galbraith is a member of the British Ornithologists' Union (MBOU), the Zoological Society of London (FZS), the Systematics Association and the Society of Systematic Biologists .

literature

• John Grant: Who's who of British Scientists (biographical entry on page 312), Longman, 1971

Web links

• Profile at the Natural History Museum