John George Williams

John George Williams (born April 4, 1913 in Cardiff , Wales , † December 28, 1997 in Leicester , Leicestershire ) was a British ornithologist .

Life

Williams was the eldest son of school principal John Lyal Williams and his wife Sissy. His interest in wildlife was sparked by his grandfather and uncle, who were both avid amateur naturalists. After training at Monkton House School in Cardiff, he worked for the local company Cory Brothers, but retained his interest in natural history and was trained as a taxidermist at the National Museum of Wales in the mid-1930s. He joined the Royal Air Force (RAF) in 1939 and served in North Africa , the Middle East , Turkey and the Balkans during World War II . In Aleppohe met Philippa Gaffikin, who also worked for the RAF. They married in Cairo in 1945 and settled in Kenya. From this marriage a son and three daughters were born.

From 1946 to 1966, Williams worked as a curator at the bird department of the Coryndon Museum (now the Nairobi National Museum ) in Nairobi . He has made several trips to various parts of Africa, including collecting expeditions for the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History , and he has directed bird watching excursions in East Africa. In 1978 Williams returned to the UK with his wife.

In 1963 he published his first book A Field Guide to Birds of East and Central Africa (German: Die Vögel Ostafrikas und Zentralafrikas , 1969), which was published in an updated new edition in 1980 under the title A Field Guide to Birds of East Africa . A Field Guide to the National Parks of East Africa followed in 1967 (German: Mammals and rare birds in the National Parks of East Africa : A pocket book for zoologists and nature lovers , 1971), 1969 A Field Guide to the Butterflies of Africa , 1978 A Field Guide to the Orchids of Britain and Europe with North Africa and the Middle East (German: Orchideen Europäische mit Nordafrika und Kleinasien , 1979) and 1983 Field guide to orchids of North America: from Alaska, Greenland, and the Arctic, south to the Mexican border .

Williams' particular interest was nectar birds . He drew numerous species, but a planned book on this group was never published. In 1950 he described the subspecies Cinnyris regius anderseni the king nectar bird , 1953, the subspecies Cinnyris sovimanga buchenorum of times alleys nectar bird and the subspecies Cinnyris fuelleborni bensoni of Fülleborn nectar bird and 1956, the subspecies Drepanorhynchus reichenowi lathburyi of Gold Swing nectar bird . In 1948 he described the Kulalbrillenvogel ( Zosterops kulalensis ), which is often regarded as a subspecies of the Oranjebrillenvogel ( Zosterops pallidus ). In 1955 he described the little-researched short-billed sylvietta ( Sylvietta philippae ) from Somalia and Ethiopia , which he named after his wife.

Dedication names

In 1956 James David Macdonald named the Williams Lark after John George Williams, who had collected the type specimens in 1955.

Web links

• Don Turner: Obituary: JG Williams In: The Independent, January 15, 1998
• Andrew Williams: Obituary: John G. Williams (1913–97) In: Ibis, Volume 149, 1999, p. 349 (PDF)