Robert Ridgway

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Robert Ridgway

Robert Ridgway (born July 2, 1850 in Mount Carmel , Illinois , † March 25, 1929 in Olney , Illinois) was an American ornithologist .

Live and act

Ridgway was a passionate bird watcher, collector and illustrator even as a teenager. Through an exchange of letters with Spencer Fullerton Baird , he was encouraged to study ornithological studies at the age of 14.

In the spring of 1867, Ridgway accompanied the geologist Clarence King on a research trip along the 40th parallel , which he described in 1877 in his work Report on Ornithology of the Fortieth Parallel . From 1867 to 1869, Ridgway made expeditions to California , Nevada , Idaho , Utah and Wyoming , where he collected many bird hides for the National Museum of Natural History .

In 1875 he married Julia Evelyn Parker. The couple's only son - Audubon Whelock Ridgway - died of pneumonia in 1901. In 1879, Ridgway was appointed curator of the Birds Department at the National Museum of Natural History by Spencer Fullerton Baird, who had since become Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution . After Baird's death, Ridgway became head of the department in 1888.

In 1883 Robert Ridgway was one of the founding members of the American Ornithologists' Union, alongside Elliott Coues . From 1898 to 1900 he was president of the organization.

In 1899, Ridgway, along with John Muir and other researchers, took part in the Harriman-Alaska Expedition led by Edward Henry Harriman along the Alaskan coast, where extensive research was carried out on the flora and fauna of Alaska .

In 1919 Robert Ridgway was awarded the Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal of the National Academy of Sciences , which had accepted him as a member in 1917. In 1919 he received the William Brewster Medal of the American Ornithologists' Union for his magnum opus The birds of North and middle America: a descriptive catalog .

Ridgway wrote about 500 articles, catalogs, and books, including History of North American Birds (in collaboration with Thomas Mayo Brewer and Spencer Fullerton Baird , 1875-1884; Land Birds , 3 volumes, Water Birds , 2 volumes), The Humming Birds (1892 ) and The Ornithology of Illinois (1889–1895). With the illustrations he was often assisted by his brother John Livzey Ridgway (1859-1947). In 1886 he published one of the first and most important color systems for bird identification with his work A Nomenclature of Colors for Naturalists and Compendium of Useful Information for Ornithologists (Boston: Little, Brown & Co.). In 1912 he published a larger work on color nomenclature entitled Color Standards and Color Nomenclature , which was financed with the money of his colleague and friend José Castulo Zeledón from Costa Rica . The identification book, in which 1115 shades are listed, was regarded as a standard work for ornithologists, florists and chemists alike.

Robert Ridgway described 35 bird taxa, including the prairie chicken ( Tympanuchus pallidicinctus ), the Florida duck ( Anas fulvigula ), the brown-headed snowfinch ( Leucosticte australis ) and the mangrove screech owl ( Megascops cooperi ). Species such as the Aztecs throttle ( Ridgwayia pinicola ), the Haiti Buzzard ( Buteo ridgwayi ), the Puna Ibis ( Plegadis ridgwayi ) that Ridgwaykotinga ( Cotinga ridgwayi ) that Mexico nymph ( Thalurania ridgwayi ) and the Braunhals Eight Schwalbe ( Caprimulgus ridgwayi ) were named after him. The Corayazaunig subspecies ( Pheugopedius coraya ridgwayi ( von Berlepsch , 1889)) was named in his honor.

literature

  • MV Barrow: A Passion for Birds: American Ornithology after Audubon. Princeton University Press 1998
  • Hans Hermann Carl Ludwig von Berlepsch: Systematic directory of the bird hides collected by Mr. Gustav Garlepp in Brazil and northern Peru, in the area of ​​the upper Amazon . In: Journal of Ornithology . tape 37 , no. 187 , 1889, pp. 289-321 ( biodiversitylibrary.org ).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ North American Birds, Vol. 46, No 2, 1992 Robert Ridgway's Roseate Grosbeaks (English; PDF; 351 kB) original article
  2. ^ Hans Hermann Carl Ludwig von Berlepsch (1889), p. 293.
personal data
SURNAME Ridgway, Robert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American ornithologist
DATE OF BIRTH July 2, 1850
PLACE OF BIRTH Mount Carmel, Illinois
DATE OF DEATH March 25, 1929
Place of death Olney, Illinois