Abstract
Brisson and Buffon each believed that his work, extensive as it was, constituted only a beginning for ornithology. They both held that it would be many years before a complete ornithology would be possible, and they were in agreement that basically what was most needed was empirical information. Buffon had a broader vision as to what would be an adequate empirical base, which included behavior, distribution, and place in the economy of nature, but hoped, along with Brisson, that a solid beginning had been made and would continue to expand. The two could not have been more prophetic. In the fifty years subsequent to the publication of the Histoire naturelle des oiseaux (1770–1783) the quantity of information on birds swelled dramatically. In part, this expansion of the empirical base of ornithology was inspired by the impressive start given it in the 1760’s and 70’s by Brisson and Buffon. The timing of their work was fortunate in that natural history became quite fashionable in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Although much of the interest was not as serious or rigorous as later standards would demand, it did create an audience for those few individuals who pursued the study more closely.1
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The fashion of natural history in the second half of the eighteenth century and beginning of the nineteenth century has often been noted. For an interesting attempt to document this trend see Don Baesel, “Natural History and the British Periodicals in the Eighteenth Century”, Ph.D., Ohio StateUniversity, 1974.
Gilbert White, The Natural History of Selborne, Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1977, p. 125 [letter #7 to Daines Barrington, Oct. 8, 1770].
British Museum, Egerton ms. 3147, fol. 15. For an interesting discussion of Dovaston see D. E. Allen, “J. F. M. Dovaston. An Overlooked Pioneer of Field Ornithology”, Journal of the Society for the Bibliography of Natural History, 1967, 4(6):277–283.
See R. J. Cleevely, “Some Background to the Life and Publications of Colonel George Montagu (1753–1815)”, Journal of the Society for the Bibliography of Natural History, 1978, 8(4):445–480
and Bruce Cummings, “Colonel Montagu, Naturalist”, Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London, 1914–5:43–48.
Col. George Montagu, Supplement to the Ornithological Dictionary, or Synopsis of British Birds, Exeter, Woolmer, 1813, p. vi.
See Jacob Kainan, “Why Bewick Succeeded: a Note in the History of Wood Engraving”, Bulletin of the United States National Museum [Contributions from the Museum of History and Technology], 1959, 218:185–201.
Cleevely, “Some Background to the Life and Publications of Colonel George Montagu”, p. 448.
The first volume treats quadrupeds. In the foreword to the second volume, however, he tells his reader that “my favorite branch of natural history has always been ornithology”: Johann Matthaeus Bechstein, Gemeinnützige Naturgeschichte Deutschlands nach allen drey Reichen, Leipzig, Crusius, 1789–95, band 2, pt. l, p.v.
See Frédéric Mauro, L’Expansion Européenne (1600–1870), Paris, Presses Universitaires de France, 1967, which has an excellent bibliography.
Also see John Dunmore, French Explorers in the Pacific, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1965
and J. Holland Rose, A. P. Newton, and E. A. Benians (eds.), The Cambridge History of the British Empire, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1929–63.
See Jacques Berlioz, “Les premières recherches ornithologiques françaisesen Afrique du Sud”, The Ostrich, 1959, supp. 3:300–302
Vernon Forbes, “Some Scientific Matters in Early Writings on the Cape”, in A. C. Brown (ed.), A History of Scientific Endeavor in South Africa, Capetown, Royal Society of South Africa, 1977, p. 39; and Erwin Stresemann, Die Entwicklung, pp. 89–103.
Erwin Stresemann, “Die brasilianischen Vogelsammlungen des Grafen von Hoffmannsegg aus den Jahren 1800–1812”, Bonner Zoologische Beiträge, 1950, 1:43–51 and 126–143.
William Burchell, Travels in the Interior of Southern Africa, London, Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1822–24, Vol. I, p. v.
J. A. Allen, “On the Maximilian Types of South American Birds in the American Museum of Natural History”, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, 1889, 2(3):209–276, describes the more notable specimens in the Prince’s collection which was purchased by the American Museum of Natural History in 1870.
Published as one of the biographical sketches in Lardner’s Cabinet Cyclopedia: William Swainson, Taxidermy, Bibliography, and Biography, London, Longman, Orme, Brown, Green and Longmans, and John Taylor, 1840,pp. 338–352.
Additional information can be found in D. J. Galloway, “The Botanical Researches of William Swainson F. R. S., in Australia, 1841–1855”, Journal of the Society for the Bibliography of Natural History, 1978, 8(4): 369–379.
The Linnean Society has five large volumes of Swainson’s correspondence which are very rich in information about his life and the state of science during the period. See “Catalogue of the Swainson Correspondence in the Possession of the Linnean Society”, Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London, 1899–1900:25–61.
Swainson, Taxidermy, p. 345.
See Erwin Stresemann, “Die Enwicklung der Vogelsammlung des Berliner Museums unter Illiger und Lichtenstein”, Journal für Ornithologie, 1922, 10:498–503 and his “Der Naturforscher Friedrich Sellow († 1831) und sein Beitrag zur Kenntnis Brasiliens”, Zoologischen Jarbücher (Abteilung für Systematik, Ökologie und Geographie der Tiere), 1948, 77(6):401–425.
See Agatha Gijzen,’s Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie 1820–1915 Rotterdam, Brusse, 1938.
Ibid., p. 91.
For an interesting discussion of the Portuguese expeditions and an account of the transfer to Paris see William Joel Simon, “Scientific Expeditions in the Portuguese Overseas Territories, 1783–1808; the Role of Lisbon in the Intellectual-Scientific Community of the Late Eighteenth Century”, Ph.D., The City University of New York, 1974.
Agnes Beriot, Grand voiliers autour du monde: Les voyages scientifiques 1760–1850, Paris, Port Royal, 1962, p. 81. In addition to this excellent study see Beriot’s “Essai sur les sources documentaires concernant les voyages de circumnavigation entrepris par la Marine Française”, Diplôme, l’Institue des Techniques de la Documentation, Paris, 1958, for an extensive bibliography and list of manuscript sources.
See J. J. H. de Labillardière, Relation du voyage à la recherche de LaPérouse, fait par ordre de l’Assemblee Constituante, pendant les années 1791, 1792, et pendant la 1 ere et la 2 e année de la République Française, Paris, Jansen, 1800. The scientific advice given to the Entrecasteaux expedition was very detailed and gives a good picture of scientific collection of the time. See Bibliothèque de Muséum National d’Histoire naturelle, ms. 46.
A. L. Jussieu, “Notice sur l’expédition a la nouvelle-hollande, Entreprise pour des recherches de Géographie et d’Histoire naturelle”, Annales du Muséum National d’Histoire naturelle, 5:7.
Ibid., p. 10.
Maurice Zobel, “Les naturalistes voyageurs Français et les grands voyages maritimes du XVIIIe et XIXe siècle”, Doctorat en Medecine, Faculté de Medecine de Paris, Paris, 1961, p. 35.
Dunmore, French Explorers, p. 228.
René Lesson and Prosper Garnot, Voyage autour du Monde, exécuté par Ordre du Roi, sur la Corvette de Sa Majesté, La Coquille, pendant les années 1822, 1823, 1824, et 1825... Zoologie, Paris, Bertrand, 1825–1830, Vol. 1, p. ii.
Quoted in Louis de Freycinet, Voyage autour du monde... exécuté sur les corvettes de S. M. l’Uranie et La Physicienne, pendant les années 1817, 1818, 1819, et 1820, Paris, Pillet, 1825, Vol. 1, p. xxxiv.
See for example the careful study by Elsa Allen, “The History of American Ornithology before Audubon”, Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, 1951, 41(3):385–591.
Thomas Horsfield and Frederic Moore, A Catalogue of the Birds in the Museum of the Hon. East-India Company, London, W. Allen, 1854–8, Vol. 1, p. iii. For a brief discussion of this collection, which ultimately went to the British Museum (Natural History)
see Charles Cowan, “Horsfield, Moore, and the Catalogues of the East India Company Museum”, Journal of the Society for the Bibliography of Natural History, 1975, 7(3):273–284,
and Mildred Archer, Natural History Drawings in the India Office Library,London, Commonwealth Relations Office, 1962.
Martin Montgomery (ed.), The Despatches, Minutes, and Correspondence, of the Marquess Wellesley, K. G. during his Administration in India, London, W. Allen, 1836, Vol. 4, pp. 674–676.
For example, General Hardwicke’s correspondence, preserved in the British Museum (Add. ms. 9869) contains complaints of the “shabby manner in which I have been treated”. (Letter of Aug. 16, 1822 to A. Macleay, fol. 102).
See Barbara Beddall, “‘Un Naturalista Original’: Don Félix de Azara, 1746–1821”, Journal of the History of Biology, 1975, 8(1):15–66.
See Paul Founder, Voyages et découvertes scientifiques des missionnaires naturalistes Français à travers le monde pendant cinq siècles XV e a XX e siècles, Paris, Lechevalier, 1932.
Linnean Society, Swainson Correspondence, letter of William Burchell to Swainson, Sept. 27, 1819.
See Georges Cuvier, “Catalogue des préparations anatomiques laissées dans le cabinet d’anatomie comparée de Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle, par G. Cuvier”, Nouvelles Annales du Muséum, 1833, 2:417–508, which lists two thousand, four hundred and fifty-two bird preparations.
Catalogue of the Contents of the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons in London, London, Warr, 1831, pp. 172–211.
Although some of this literature, e.g., on breeding pigeons, was looked down upon by many “serious” naturalists, it often was of considerable scientific value. See, James Second, “Nature’s Fancy: Charles Darwin and the Breeding of Pigeons”, Isis, 1981, 72(262): 163–186.
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Farber, P.L. (1982). New Data 1780–1830. In: The Emergence of Ornithology as a Scientific Discipline: 1760–1850. Studies in the History of Modern Science, vol 12. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-7819-5_3
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