Archives of natural history, Volume 37, No. 2 (October 2010)

Archives of natural history, Volume 37, No. 2 (October 2010) is available online at Edinburgh University Press.

The following papers (listed alphabetically by the first author’s surname), short and biographical notes, have been published in Archives of natural history, volume 37, no. 2, both in printed form and online.

Contents

C. T. AMBROSE: Darwin’s “historical sketch” – an  American predecessor: C. S. Rafinesque.

E. DICKINSON, N. DAVID, L. OVERSTREET, F. D. STEINHEIMER & J. JANSEN: Les pigeons: Coenraad Jacob Temminck versus Pauline Knip.

L. J. DORR: “Muy poco se sabe de los resultados”: Francis E. Bond’s expedition to the Paria Peninsula and delta of the Orinoco, Venezuela (1911)

O. FLORES-VILLELA, C. A. RIOS-MUNOZ, K. SCHWENK, G. ZAMUDIO-VARELA & G. MAGANA-COTA: An unpublished manuscript of Alfredo Duges related to the classification of lizards according to tongue morphology, circa 1898.

A. D. FOX & P. D. L. BEASLEY: David Lack and the birth of radar  ornithology.

R. Y. McGOWAN & I. J. STENHOUSE: “An outstanding man among Scottish ornithologists”: Surgeon Rear-Admiral John Hutton Stenhouse (1865–1931).

S. L. OLSON: James Petiver’s “Mary-Land Yellow-Throat” – a bird misidentified through four centuries.

P. G. MOORE: Illustrations and the genesis of Barrett and Yonge’s Collins pocket guide to the sea shore (1958).

M. B. SIMPSON jr, S. W. SIMPSON & D. W. JOHNSTON: Zoological material for John Lawson’s “Compleat History” of Carolina (1710-1711): specimens recorded in the Hans Sloane’s catalogues.

L. D. STEPHENS & D. R. CALDER: The zoological career of Jesse Walter Fewkes (1850-1930).

R. B. STOKES: Cotteau’s posthumous 1896 monograph on Miocene Spatangus (Echinoidea) of France, the missing plate 13 and the death of the Paléontologie française.

G. N. SWINNEY: Edward Forbes (1815-1854) and the  exhibition of natural order in Edinburgh.

G. N. SWINNEY: Robert Jameson (1774–1854) and the concept of a public museum.

Short notes

A. M. LUCAS: Early copies of the first edition of Origin of species in Australia.

C. H. SMITH, J. WILLIAMS, J. STEPHENS & G. BECCALONI:  Alfred Russel Wallace notes 2: the spelling “Russel”, and Wallace’s date of birth.

S. T. TURVEY: A new historical record of macaws on Jamaica.

Society for the Bibliography of Natural History: Founding & early members: biographical notes

R. J. CLEEVELY: Leslie Reginald COX: palaeontologist, malacologist & taxonomist.

D. T. DONOVAN & E. C. NELSON: Andrew Templeman: geologist and bibliophile.

Archives of natural history, Volume 37, No. 2 (October 2010) Abstracts

C. T. AMBROSE: Darwin’s historical sketch – an American predecessor: C. S. Rafinesque.

When early reviewers of Darwin’s On the origin of species chided him for neglecting to mention predecessors to his theory of evolution, he added an “historical sketch” in later editions. Among the predecessors he cited was a French émigré to America named Constantine Samuel Rafinesque, who in the mid-1830s had written about the emergence of new species at a time when most naturalists (including Darwin initially) accepted the biblical story of creation and assumed the immutability of species. Rafinesque discovered and named thousands of new plants and animals in his American travels and flooded the taxonomic literature with reports, which seemed incomplete, confusing, and excessive to other naturalists. He alienated many who later dismissed his findings and excluded them from the biological literature. Soon after Rafinesque’s death in 1840, Asa Gray, the young American botanist, wrote a damning critique of his work and suggested it be ignored. How Darwin learned of Rafinesque and his views on species is the focus of this essay, which also mentions briefly the two other American naturalists cited by Darwin in his sketch. Gray seems the likely informant through his correspondence with Darwin or his close associates.

KEY WORDS: Asa Gray – evolution – On the origin of species – naturalists – species – taxonomy

E.C. DICKINSON, N. DAVID, L. K. OVERSTREET, F. D. STEINHEIMER & J. JANSEN: Histoire naturelle des pigeons or Les pigeons: Coenraad Jacob Temminck versus Pauline Knip.

Evidence for the dates of the parts of C. J. Temminck’s Histoire naturelle des pigeons was planted by the artist who, with the benefit of royal patronage, had earlier made herself the apparent architect of the work as a whole and renamed it Les pigeons. We here reveal the flaws in the planted evidence, available in Philadelphia, and how these flaws show when she committed the deed. Wrappers play a major role, and a set in Berlin reveals the true dates of publication. The consequence is that the work must be seen as two works: one, the combined issue of the last parts where the artist must be allowed her pride of place; the other, the bulk of the work where her evidence crumbles and Temminck is undoubtedly and lead player in the publication not just the author.

KEY WORDS: Pauline de Courcelles – fine art – wrappers – deceit – Empress Marie Louise Bonaparte – Napoleon Bonaparte

S. L. OLSON: James Petiver’s “Mary-Land Yellow-Throat” – a bird misidentified through four centuries.

The name “Mary-Land Yellow-Throat” coined by James Petiver in 1702 was subsequently applied to the bird now known as the common yellowthroat, Geothlypis trichas, and the term “yellowthroat”, ultimately derivable from Petiver, is now used as a generic term for all nine species of the warbler genus Geothlypis (Parulidae). Re-examination of Petiver’s illustration shows that his bird cannot have been a Geothlypis warbler and was almost certainly the yellow-throated warbler, Dendroica dominica.

KEY WORDS: common yellowthroat – Dendroica dominica – George Edwards – Geothlypis trichas – Hugh Jones – Parulidae – yellow-throated warbler

R. Y. McGOWAN & I. J. STENHOUSE: “An outstanding man among Scottish ornithologists”: Surgeon Rear-Admiral John Hutton Stenhouse (1865–1931).

A biographical sketch of John Hutton Stenhouse (1865–1931) is provided. This focuses on his contributions to ornithology in Scotland and to Scottish ornithology, most notably through his long association with the Royal Scottish Museum. His involvements with bird migration studies on Fair Isle and his influence on the subsequent development of a permanent bird observatory on the island are discussed

KEY WORDS: Royal Scottish Museum – Fair Isle – history of collections – migration studies

G. N. SWINNEY: Robert Jameson (1774–1854) and the concept of a public museum.

Attention is drawn to Robert Jameson’s distinction between “the public” and “the working classes” in relation to the audience for the Natural History Museum of the College (later the University of) Edinburgh. This distinction is discussed, together with specific usage of the related term “closed”, in the context of recent theoretical studies on the creation and construction of the public and a public sphere during the nineteenth century.

KEY WORDS: College Museum – Natural History Museum – Edinburgh – public access

FLORES-VILLELA, C. A. RÍOS-MUÑOZ, K. SCHWENK, G. ZAMUDIO-VARELA & G. MAGAÑA-COTA: An unpublished manuscript of Alfredo Dugès related to the classification of lizards according to tongue morphology, c. 1898.

An unpublished manuscript of Alfredo Dugès, was found in Guanajuato, Mexico. This manuscript is interesting in depicting some of the ideas of A. Dugès, about the phylogenetic position of many lizard groups in the nineteenth century. In particular, his conclusion on the phylogenetic position of Heloderma, the only known venomous lizard at that time. Dugès’s discussion is important in the context of a science dominated by Europeans and North Americans, putting this lizard in a modern phylogenetic context.

Un manuscrito inédito de Alfredo Dugès se encontró en Guanajuato, México. Este manuscrito tiene interés ya que representa las ideas de A. Dugès sobre la posición filogenética de varios grupos de lagartijas a la luz del conocimiento en el siglo XIX. Es importante su conclusión sobre la posición filogenética de Heloderma, la única lagartija venenosa conocida en ese tiempo. La propuesta de Dugès, es importante en el contexto de la taxonomía del siglo XIX dominada por europeos y norteamericanos. Dugès coloco a estas lagartijas en un contexto filogenético moderno, tal como se les considera actualmente.

KEY WORDS: Reptilia – classification – morphology – Helodermatidae – Americas

L. D. STEPHENS & D. R. CALDER: The zoological career of Jesse Walter Fewkes (1850–1930).

This article examines the life and zoological research of Jesse Walter Fewkes of the United States, whose later career as a pioneer in cultural anthropology overshadowed his significant earlier contributions to zoology. The primary focus of his zoological work was on planktonic Cnidaria, especially the Siphonophora. He also carried out detailed investigations on larval development of echinoderms and worms. A bibliography of Fewkes’s publications in natural history and a list of the nominal taxa he established reflect the scope of his contributions.

KEY WORDS: biography – zoology – Cnidaria – Echinodermata – larval development – Alexander Agassiz – Museum of Comparative Zoology

P.G. MOORE: Illustrations and the genesis of Barrett and Yonge’s Collins pocket guide to the sea shore (1958).

Twenty nine items of correspondence from the mid-1950s discovered recently in the archives of the University Marine Biological Station Millport, and others made available by one of the illustrators and a referee, shed unique light on the publishing history of Collins pocket guide to the sea shore. This handbook, generally regarded as a classic of its genre, marked a huge step forwards in 1958; providing generations of students with an authoritative, concise, affordable, well illustrated text with which to identify common organisms found between the tidemarks from around the coasts of the British Isles. The crucial role played by a select band of illustrators in making this publication the success it eventually became, is highlighted herein. The difficulties of accomplishing this production within commercial strictures, and generally as a sideline to the main employment of the participants, are revealed. Such stresses were not helped by changing demands on the illustrators made by the authors and by the publishers.

KEY WORDS: John Henry Barrett – Charles Maurice Yonge – Richard Bevis Pike – Raleigh Trevelyan – illustrators – publishing history

L. J. DORR: “Muy poco se sabe de los resultados”: Francis E. Bond’s expedition to the Paria Peninsula and delta of the Orinoco, Venezuela (1911).

The natural history expedition of the American banker and stock broker Francis E. Bond and companions to the Paria Peninsula and delta of the Orinoco, Venezuela, in early 1911 is described. Biographical details are provided for the three principals; Francis E. Bond, Stewardson Brown and Thomas S. Gillin. The itinerary of their three and a half month expedition is elaborated, and notes are provided on the collections of plants, animals, and artefacts that they gathered in South America and deposited in the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia on their return.

KEY WORDS: James Bond – Stewardson Brown – Thomas S. Gillin – natural history exploration

G. N. SWINNEY: Edward Forbes (1815–1854) and the exhibition of natural order in Edinburgh.

The roles, affordances and social agency of natural history museums are discussed in relation to the writings of Edward Forbes. These signal a motivation, in the mid-nineteenth-century, to naturalize the established social order through the systematic arrangement and display of natural history specimens. The perceived importance of the embodied messages of social order, as an antidote to radicalism and revolution, overrode concerns about temperance and abstinence and immediate fears for the physical safety of collections. The tensions between temperance, and the broader concerns about social order, were played out over the matter of the museums themselves being licensed premises.

KEY WORDS: museum studies – social order – temperance – urbanization – Edinburgh Museum of Science and Art – Scotland

R. B. STOKES: Gustave Cotteau’s posthumous 1897 monograph on Miocene Spatangus (Echinoidea) of France, the missing plate 13, and the death of Paléontologie française.

The first issue of Cotteau’s monograph on the post-Eocene echinoids of France, destined to be his final contribution to Paléontologie française, had reached proof stage when he died in 1894. A limited number of copies of this first part, which included twelve plates, was printed for private circulation. Subsequently the section of the genus Spatangus was published in Isère as a posthumous journal article with the same twelve plates. Plate 13, of Spatangus heinzi Gauthier, whilst called for in the text, was not included. This paper presents the missing plate 13 which was prepared separately in the Yonne and never previously published; it identifies errors which were not corrected in the published version, and differences between Cotteau’s original proof version and that which was published. It also briefly summarises the history of the publication of the echinoid volumes of Paléontologie française and the reluctance of the publisher, George Masson, to continue its production.

KEY WORDS: Tertiary – history of publication

A. D. FOX & P. D. L. BEASLEY: David Lack and the birth of radar ornithology.

The use of radar to detect ships and aircraft became a key part of Britain’s defence in the early part of the Second World War, but not all echoes were those of operational targets. David Lack, of the Army Operational Research Group, showed that many unexplained echoes came from flying birds, despite critics at the time. Careful observation combined with experiments provided observers with means of differentiating birds from boats and aircraft. Lack went on to use his wartime experience to launch the science of radar ornithology during the 1950s, which formed the basis of a development that continues to the present day with a range of more sophisticated radar equipment.

KEY WORDS: ‘angels’ – birds – George Varley – Chain Home

M. B. SIMPSON Jr, S. W. SIMPSON & D. W. JOHNSTON: Zoological material for John Lawson’s “Compleat History” of Carolina (1710–1711): specimens recorded in Hans Sloane’s catalogues.

As part of his plan for a “Compleat History” of the region, John Lawson, Surveyor-General of North Carolina, collected plants and animals in 1710 and 1711 from Virginia and North Carolina and shipped them to James Petiver in London. After Petiver’s death in 1718, his collection was acquired by Hans Sloane and subsequently incorporated into the natural history collections in the British Museum. The Sloane herbarium, now at the Natural History Museum, London, contains more than 300 previously reported botanical specimens attributed to Lawson, but details of his zoological collecting have not heretofore been documented. Two of Sloane’s manuscript catalogues of “Fossils” include at least 34 specimens that appear to have been among those sent by Lawson to Petiver. These Lawson specimens were probably discarded or destroyed by British Museum staff in the 1700s or early 1800s. The Sloane catalogues nevertheless provide evidence that Lawson had begun work on his ambitious plan for a natural history of Carolina. Lawson’s untimely death in September 1711 brought an abrupt end to the project, and Petiver apparently never used the zoological material he received from Lawson.

KEY WORDS: A new voyage to Carolina – colonial American zoology – British Museum – James Petiver – Royal Society of London – zoology collections