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Some thoughts on scientific collecting

10,000 Birds

What wasn’t publicised at the time, but the scientist later both admitted and owned, is that the kingfisher was then killed and collected for scientific reasons. I’m not going to rehash the arguments for scientific collecting here. The large room the collection was held in was a profoundly weird place. Bush Wrens.

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Where the People Are

10,000 Birds

The text is divided, not taxonomically or chronologically, but with a weirdly visual bent – one section is devoted to what birders do, while roughly twice as many pages go to matters like decorating with a bird theme or collecting bird memorabilia and art. But not, mind you, on any shelf of popular science or ornithological memoir.

Science 213
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Inaccessible Island Rail Atlantisia rogersi

10,000 Birds

Occasionally the Tristan Thrush Nesocichla eremita will prey upon chicks from the two-egg nest of the Inaccessible Island Rail but this not enough in any way to threaten the species. So desirable was it, however, to find out what this flightless rail was like that he left collecting material with the late Rev. Atlantisia Rogersi.

Science 239
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The Bird Way: A Book Review

10,000 Birds

There is a lot of extreme behavior here (and a lot of that behavior takes place in Australia), but this is not simply a collection of the world’s most fantastic bird tales. Many popular science books have neither. As Ackerman explains in her Introduction, studying extreme behavior brings new insight into what we think we know.

Science 264
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Stuck in the middle (of the AOU/COS meeting)

10,000 Birds

Some lingered to gaze at samples from the Field’s collection of bird specimens, such as perfectly preserved thrushes, warblers, and even a Rose-breasted Grosbeak under glass. Other hardy souls signed up for an early morning “Ostrich Run” 5k, with the prizes beinging–you guessed it–actual ostrich eggs.

San Diego 217
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Birds and Us: A 12,000 Year History from Cave Art to Conservation–A Book Review

10,000 Birds

They may be about bird eggs ( The Most Perfect Thing: The Inside (and Outside) of a Bird’s Egg , 2016), or a 17th-century ornithologist ( Virtuoso by Nature: The Scientific Worlds of Francis Willughby, 2016), or How Bullfinches learn songs from humans ( The Wisdom of Birds: An Illustrated History of Ornithology.

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The Feathery Tribe: A Book Review

10,000 Birds

The team explored Nevada and Utah, with Ridgway collecting thousands of bird specimen, plus nests and eggs for the Smithsonian. Ridgway spent the rest of his career in the Castle, the Smithsonian building that then housed the National Museum’s bird collection. It’s challenging reading.

Illinois 186