James Fisher (naturalist)

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James Fisher 1955 on the rocky island of Rockall

James Maxwell McConnell Fisher (born September 3, 1912 in Clifton , Bristol , † September 25, 1970 in Hendon , London Borough of Barnet ) was a British ornithologist, naturalist, author, editor and broadcaster who wrote over 1000 radio and television reports on natural history Topics made.

Live and act

Fischer was the eldest son of Kenneth Fisher (also an ornithologist and principal of the Oundle School from 1922 to 1945). His maternal uncle was Arnold Boyd, a naturalist from Cheshire . After training at Eton College , he first studied medicine at Magdalen College in Oxford , but then switched to zoology. In 1933 he participated as an ornithologist in the Spitzbergen expedition at the University of Oxford . After his university days he worked as an assistant curator at the London Zoo . During the Second World War he conducted studies on rooks for the Ministry of Agriculture . After the war, he was a senior member of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) and the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN), as well as a member of the National Parks Commission and Vice Chairman of the Countryside Commission.

On September 18, 1955, Fisher took part as a geologist in the British occupation of the rock island Rockall in the North Atlantic .

In addition to numerous books of his own, Fisher was involved with Julian Huxley , Dudley Stamp (1898–1966) and Eric Hosking as editor of the New Naturalist book series. In the 1950s he was an ornithologist on the regular radio program Nature Parliament as part of the BBC 's Children's Hour service . In 1966 he was awarded the Bernard Tucker Medal of the British Trust for Ornithology .

Fisher was married to the literary critic Margery Fisher (born Turner, 1913-1992), with whom he wrote a biography about the polar explorer Ernest Shackleton . From this marriage there were six children. In September 1970 he was killed in a car accident.

Works (selection)

  • 1939: Animals as Friends and how to Keep Them (JM Dent and Sons) with Margaret Shaw.
  • 1939 Birds as Animals (W. Heinemann)
  • 1939 The Living Thoughts of Darwin (Cassell) with Julian Huxley.
  • 1941 The Natural History of Selborne (Penguin Books, 1941) (new edition of the original work by Gilbert White (1789)).
  • 1941 Watching Birds (Pelican Books)
  • 1942 The Birds of Britain (W. Collins)
  • 1944 Birds of the Village ( Puffin Picture Books PP20)
  • 1947 Bird Recognition 1: sea-birds & waders (Pelican Books) (Penguin Books; Revised edition 1954)
  • 1951 Bird Recognition 2: birds of prey and water-fowl (Pelican Books) (Penguin Books)
  • 1952 Birds of the Field (Collins)
  • 1952 The Fulmar (Collins)
  • 1952 Nature Parliament (JM Dent)
  • 1953 A Thousand Geese (Collins, London), with Peter Scott
  • 1954 A History of Birds (Houghton Mifflin, Boston, Mass.)
  • 1954 The Wonderful World; The adventure of the earth we live on (Hanover House) Art Editor: FHK Henrion
  • 1954 Sea-birds: an introduction to the natural history of the sea-birds of the North Atlantic (Collins), with Ronald Lockley
  • 1955 Bird Recognition 3: rails, game-birds and larger perching and singing birds (Pelican Books). (Penguin Books)
  • 1956 Adventure of the Sea (Rathbone Books)
  • 1956 Birds and Beasts (Phoenix House) with Maurice Wilson
  • 1956 Rockall (Bles)
  • 1956 Wild America (Collins), with Roger Tory Peterson .
  • 1957 The Wonderful World of the Sea (Garden City Books)
  • 1957 Shackleton (James Barrie Books, London) with Margery Fisher
  • 1958 Adventure of the Air (Rathbone Books)
  • 1958 Shackleton and the Antarctic (Houghton Mifflin, Boston, Mass.) With Margery Turner Fisher.
  • 1959 The Wonderful World of the Air (Garden City Books)
  • 1960 Nature: Earth, Plants, Animals (Macdonald) with Julian Huxley.
  • 1961 The Doubleday Pictorial Library of Nature: earth, plants, animals (Doubleday, Garden City, NY) with Julian Huxley.
  • 1964 Shell Nature Book (Littlehampton Book Services, 1964) with Geoffrey Grigson
  • 1964 The World of Birds (Doubleday, Garden City, NY) with Roger Tory Peterson. (German: The Colorful Book of Birds - Introduction to Ornithology, 1979. Translation: Wilhelm Meise .)
  • 1966 The Migration of Birds (Bodley Head) illustrated by Crispin Fisher.
  • 1966 The Shell List of British and Irish Birds (Ebury Press)
  • 1966 The Shell Bird Book (Ebury Press)
  • 1966 Shell Nature Lovers' Atlas of England, Scotland & Wales (Ebury Press)
  • 1967 Zoos of the World: The Story of Animals in Captivity (Natural History Press)
  • 1969 Wildlife in Danger (Viking) with Noel Simon and Jack Vincent .
  • 1971 Birds: an introduction to ornithology (Aldus Books) posthumously with Roger Tory Peterson.
  • 1973 List of Mammals which Have Become Extinct or are Possibly Extinct Since 1600 (International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) posthumously with HA Goodwin and JM Goodwin.
  • 1974 Watching Birds (Poyser, 1974) posthumously with Jim Flegg, illustrated by Crispin Fisher.
  • 1983 Darwin (Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, Milan) posthumously with Julian Huxley and Antonello La Vergata.

literature

  • Fisher, James Maxwell McConnell (1912-1970), ornithologist by Gwynne Vevers, rev. Clemency Thorne Fisher In: Dictionary of National Biography online

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Fisher, James
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Fisher, James Maxwell McConnell
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British ornithologist, naturalist, author, editor and broadcaster
DATE OF BIRTH September 3, 1912
PLACE OF BIRTH Clifton , Bristol
DATE OF DEATH September 25, 1970
Place of death Hendon , London Borough of Barnet