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Ornithology
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Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the study of birds. The word ornithology derives from the ancient Greek ὄρνις ornis and λόγος logos, several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and the aesthetic appeal of birds. Most marked among these is the extent of studies undertaken by amateurs working within the parameters of strict scientific methodology, most modern biological theories apply across taxonomic groups and the number of professional scientists who identify themselves as ornithologists has therefore declined. A wide range of tools and techniques are used in ornithology, the origins of the word ornithology come from the Greek ornithologos and late 17th-century Latin ornithologia meaning bird science. Trends include the move from mere descriptions to the identification of patterns, Humans have had an observational relationship with birds since prehistory, with some stone age drawings being amongst the oldest indications of an interest in birds. Birds were perhaps important as a source, and bones of as many as 80 species have been found in excavations of early Stone Age settlements. Waterbird and seabird remains have also found in shell mounds on the island of Oronsay off the coast of Scotland. Cultures around the world have rich vocabularies related to birds, traditional bird names are often based on detailed knowledge of the behaviour, with many names being onomatopoeic, many still in use. Traditional knowledge may also involve the use of birds in folk medicine, hunting of wild birds as well as their domestication would have required considerable knowledge of their habits. Poultry farming and falconry were practised from early times in many parts of the world, artificial incubation of poultry was practised in China around 246 BC and around at least 400 BC in Egypt. The Egyptians also made use of birds in their scripts, many of which. Early written records provide information on the past distributions of species. For instance Xenophon records the abundance of the ostrich in Assyria, other old writings such as the Vedas demonstrate the careful observation of avian life histories and includes the earliest reference to the habit of brood parasitism by the Asian koel. Like writing, the art of China, Japan, Persia and India also demonstrate knowledge. Aristotle in 350 BC in his Historia Animalium noted the habit of migration, moulting, egg laying and life spans. Similar misconceptions existed regarding the breeding of barnacle geese, around 77 AD, Pliny the Elder described birds, among other creatures, in his Historia Naturalis. The origins of falconry have been traced to Mesopotamia and the earliest record comes from the reign of Sargon II, falconry made its entry to Europe only after AD400, brought in from the East after invasions by the Huns and Allans. Frederick II of Hohenstaufen learned about Arabian falconry during wars in the region and he had this work translated into Latin and also conducted experiments on birds in his menagerie
2.
Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University
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The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, formerly the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, is the oldest natural science research institution and museum in the New World. It was founded in 1812, by many of the naturalists of the young American republic with an expressed mission of the encouragement. The Academy also has a tradition of public exhibits and educational programs for both schools and the general public. During the first decades of the United States, Philadelphia was the cultural capital, two of the citys institutions, the Library Company and the American Philosophical Society, were centers of enlightened thought and scientific inquiry. The academy was meant to foster a gathering of fellow naturalists and they frequently looked to their European counterparts for inspiration and expertise and longed to be regarded as equals. On 25 April 1817 they were incorporated into the society under the title of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia by the legislature of Pennsylvania, by 1 January 1818, eight members were published. Within a decade of its founding, the Academy became the center of natural sciences in the United States. Academy members were enlisted to participate in national surveys of the western territories. Corresponding members included such luminaries as Charles Darwin, Asa Gray, for much of its history, new members had to be nominated by two current members and then elected by the remaining members. These requirements were dropped in 1924, notable 20th-century scientists include James Böhlke, James Bond, Henry Weed Fowler, Ruth Patrick, Henry Pilsbry, and Witmer Stone. In 2011, the Academy became affiliated with nearby Drexel University, collections are the hallmark of museums and those at The Academy of Natural Sciences are among the more important of their kind. The size and scope of its collections have grown substantially since the early years, currently, there are over 17 million biological specimens, and hundreds of thousands of volumes, journals, illustrations, photographs, and archival items in its library. Sometimes the Academy is also enlisted to house and care for collections originally gathered by other institutions, for example, a number of the natural history collections at the American Philosophical Society were relocated to the Academy by the end of the 19th century. But these collections are not maintained just to collect dust and they provide a library of biodiversity. In recent decades, research has shifted in emphasis to the science of systematics, either way, the collections are invaluable. They provide the type specimens, the material that helps establish a species identity. They also provide raw materials with which scientists can investigate the nature of species, their relationships with other species, their evolutionary history. New questions and new technology illustrate the importance of these collections, titian Peale may not have been interested in the conservation biology of the butterflies he collected while Henry Pilsbry probably did not consider comparing the DNA of his snails
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Philadelphia
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In 1682, William Penn, an English Quaker, founded the city to serve as capital of the Pennsylvania Colony. Philadelphia was one of the capitals in the Revolutionary War. In the 19th century, Philadelphia became an industrial center. It became a destination for African-Americans in the Great Migration. The areas many universities and colleges make Philadelphia a top international study destination, as the city has evolved into an educational, with a gross domestic product of $388 billion, Philadelphia ranks ninth among world cities and fourth in the nation. Philadelphia is the center of activity in Pennsylvania and is home to seven Fortune 1000 companies. The Philadelphia skyline is growing, with a market of almost 81,900 commercial properties in 2016 including several prominent skyscrapers. The city is known for its arts, culture, and rich history, Philadelphia has more outdoor sculptures and murals than any other American city. Fairmount Park, when combined with the adjacent Wissahickon Valley Park in the watershed, is one of the largest contiguous urban park areas in the United States. The 67 National Historic Landmarks in the city helped account for the $10 billion generated by tourism, Philadelphia is the only World Heritage City in the United States. Before Europeans arrived, the Philadelphia area was home to the Lenape Indians in the village of Shackamaxon, the Lenape are a Native American tribe and First Nations band government. They are also called Delaware Indians and their territory was along the Delaware River watershed, western Long Island. Most Lenape were pushed out of their Delaware homeland during the 18th century by expanding European colonies, Lenape communities were weakened by newly introduced diseases, mainly smallpox, and violent conflict with Europeans. Iroquois people occasionally fought the Lenape, surviving Lenape moved west into the upper Ohio River basin. The American Revolutionary War and United States independence pushed them further west, in the 1860s, the United States government sent most Lenape remaining in the eastern United States to the Indian Territory under the Indian removal policy. In the 21st century, most Lenape now reside in the US state of Oklahoma, with communities living also in Wisconsin, Ontario. The Dutch considered the entire Delaware River valley to be part of their New Netherland colony, in 1638, Swedish settlers led by renegade Dutch established the colony of New Sweden at Fort Christina and quickly spread out in the valley. In 1644, New Sweden supported the Susquehannocks in their defeat of the English colony of Maryland
4.
Quakers
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Quakers are members of a historically Christian group of religious movements generally known as the Religious Society of Friends. They include those with evangelical, holiness, liberal, and traditional Quaker understandings of Christianity, to differing extents, the different movements that make up the Religious Society of Friends/Friends Church avoid creeds and hierarchical structures. In 2007, there were about 359,000 adult Quakers, in 2012, there were 377,055 adult Quakers. Some meetings of both types have Recorded Ministers in their meetings—Friends recognised for their gift of vocal ministry, the first Quakers lived in mid-17th century England. The movement arose from the Legatine-Arians and other dissenting Protestant groups, some of these early Quaker ministers were women. They emphasized a personal and direct experience of Christ, acquired through both direct religious experience and the reading and studying of the Bible. Quakers focused their private life on developing behaviour and speech reflecting emotional purity, in the past, Quakers were known for their use of thee as an ordinary pronoun, refusal to participate in war, plain dress, refusal to swear oaths, opposition to slavery, and teetotalism. & J. Clark and the big three British confectionery makers Cadbury, Rowntree and Frys, and philanthropic efforts, including abolition of slavery, prison reform, during and after the English Civil War many dissenting Christian groups emerged, including the Seekers and others. A young man named George Fox was dissatisfied with the teachings of the Church of England and he had a vision on Pendle Hill in Lancashire, England, in which he believed that the Lord let me see in what places he had a great people to be gathered. Following this he travelled around England, the Netherlands, and Barbados preaching and teaching with the aim of converting new adherents to his faith, the central theme of his Gospel message was that Christ has come to teach his people himself. His followers considered themselves to be the restoration of the true Christian church, in 1650, Fox was brought before the magistrates Gervase Bennet and Nathaniel Barton, on a charge of religious blasphemy. According to George Foxs autobiography, Bennet was the first that called us Quakers and it is thought that George Fox was referring to Isaiah 66,2 or Ezra 9,4. Thus, the name Quaker began as a way of ridiculing George Foxs admonition, Quakerism gained a considerable following in England and Wales, and the numbers increased to a peak of 60,000 in England and Wales by 1680. This was relaxed after the Declaration of Indulgence and stopped under the Act of Toleration 1689, with the restructuring of the family and household came new roles for women, Fox and Fell viewed the Quaker mother as essential to developing holy conversation in her children and husband. Quaker women were responsible for the spirituality of the larger community, coming together in meetings that regulated marriage. The persecution of Quakers in North America began in 1656 when English Quaker missionaries Mary Fisher and they were considered heretics because of their insistence on individual obedience to the Inner Light. They were imprisoned and banished by the Massachusetts Bay Colony and their books were burned, and most of their property was confiscated. They were imprisoned in terrible conditions, then deported, in 1660, English Quaker Mary Dyer was hanged on Boston Common for repeatedly defying a Puritan law banning Quakers from the colony
5.
Taxonomy (biology)
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Taxonomy is the science of defining groups of biological organisms on the basis of shared characteristics and giving names to those groups. The exact definition of taxonomy varies from source to source, but the core of the remains, the conception, naming. There is some disagreement as to whether biological nomenclature is considered a part of taxonomy, the broadest meaning of taxonomy is used here. The word taxonomy was introduced in 1813 by Candolle, in his Théorie élémentaire de la botanique, the term alpha taxonomy is primarily used today to refer to the discipline of finding, describing, and naming taxa, particularly species. In earlier literature, the term had a different meaning, referring to morphological taxonomy, ideals can, it may be said, never be completely realized. They have, however, a value of acting as permanent stimulants. Some of us please ourselves by thinking we are now groping in a beta taxonomy, turrill thus explicitly excludes from alpha taxonomy various areas of study that he includes within taxonomy as a whole, such as ecology, physiology, genetics, and cytology. He further excludes phylogenetic reconstruction from alpha taxonomy, thus, Ernst Mayr in 1968 defined beta taxonomy as the classification of ranks higher than species. This activity is what the term denotes, it is also referred to as beta taxonomy. How species should be defined in a group of organisms gives rise to practical and theoretical problems that are referred to as the species problem. The scientific work of deciding how to define species has been called microtaxonomy, by extension, macrotaxonomy is the study of groups at higher taxonomic ranks, from subgenus and above only, than species. While some descriptions of taxonomic history attempt to date taxonomy to ancient civilizations, earlier works were primarily descriptive, and focused on plants that were useful in agriculture or medicine. There are a number of stages in scientific thinking. Early taxonomy was based on criteria, the so-called artificial systems. Later came systems based on a complete consideration of the characteristics of taxa, referred to as natural systems, such as those of de Jussieu, de Candolle and Bentham. The publication of Charles Darwins Origin of Species led to new ways of thinking about classification based on evolutionary relationships and this was the concept of phyletic systems, from 1883 onwards. This approach was typified by those of Eichler and Engler, the advent of molecular genetics and statistical methodology allowed the creation of the modern era of phylogenetic systems based on cladistics, rather than morphology alone. Taxonomy has been called the worlds oldest profession, and naming and classifying our surroundings has likely been taking place as long as mankind has been able to communicate
6.
Alexander Wilson (ornithologist)
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Alexander Wilson was a Scottish-American poet, ornithologist, naturalist, and illustrator. Identified by George Ord as the Father of American Ornithology, Wilson is now regarded as the greatest American ornithologist before Audubon, several species of bird are named after Wilson, including the Wilsons storm-petrel, Wilsons plover, Wilsons phalarope, Wilsons snipe, and Wilsons warbler. The now obsolete warbler genus Wilsonia was named for him by Charles Lucien Bonaparte, the Wilson Journal of Ornithology and the Wilson Ornithological Society also bear his name. Wilson was born in Paisley, Scotland, in 1779 he was apprenticed as a weaver. The writing of a poem of severe personal satire against a mill owner resulted in his arrest and he was sentenced to burn the work in public and imprisoned. After his release, he emigrated to America, Wilson and his nephew left Scotland for America in May 1794. Here Wilson met the famous naturalist William Bartram, who encouraged Wilsons interest in ornithology, of the 268 species of birds illustrated there,26 had not previously been described. Wilson died during the preparation of the volume, which was completed and published by George Ord. Wilson is buried in Gloria Dei Church cemetery in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, George Ord, Wilsons friend, patron, and continuator of his work, is buried not far away in the same cemetery. In Paisley, a memorial and a statue commemorate Wilsons connection to that city, the memorial is inscribed Remember Alexander Wilson 1766-1813. American Ornithology, or, the Natural History of the Birds of the United States, list of pieces written by Mr. Alexander Wilson, now in Philadelphia. At head of title, Paisley repository, probable decade of imprint from NSTC. The American blue bird, p. 2-3, The Baltimore bird, rab and Ringan, a tale as delivered in the Pantheon, Edinburgh by the author of Watty and Meg, to which is added The twa cats and the cheese, a tale. Oration, on the power and value of national liberty delivered to an assembly of citizens, at Milestown, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday. This material relates to Alexander B, there are notes and copies of letters and documents, including a copy of Wilsons will. There is one poem by Wilson, The Last Wish, the Foresters, A Poem, Descriptive of a Pedestrian Journey to the Falls of Niagara in the Autumn of 1804. Newtown, S. Siegfried & J. Wilson, also published in the magazine The Port Folio in 1809/1810. Alexander Wilson, The Scot Who Founded American Ornithology by Edward H. Burtt, Jr. and William E. Davis, Jr. Harvard UP, Cambridge, the Life and Letters of Alexander Wilson by Clark Hunter
7.
John James Audubon
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John James Audubon was an American ornithologist, naturalist, and painter. He was notable for his extensive studies documenting all types of American birds and his major work, a color-plate book entitled The Birds of America, is considered one of the finest ornithological works ever completed. Audubon was born in Les Cayes in the French colony of Saint-Domingue on his fathers sugarcane plantation and he was the son of Lieutenant Jean Audubon, a French naval officer from the south of Brittany, and his mistress Jeanne Rabine, a 27-year-old chambermaid from Les Touches, Brittany. They named the boy Jean Rabin and his mother died when the boy was a few months old, as she had suffered from tropical disease since arriving on the island. His father already had an number of mixed-race children, some by his mulatto housekeeper. Following Jeanne Rabins death, Jean Audubon renewed his relationship with Sanitte Bouffard and had a daughter by her, Bouffard also took care of the infant boy Jean. The senior Audubon had commanded ships, during the American Revolution, he had been imprisoned by Britain. After his release, he helped the American cause and he had long worked to save money and secure his familys future with real estate. In 1791 he arranged for his natural children Jean and Muguet, the children were raised in Couëron, near Nantes, France, by Audubon and his French wife Anne Moynet Audubon, whom he had married years before his time in Saint-Domingue. In 1794 they formally adopted both his children to regularize their legal status in France. They renamed the boy Jean-Jacques Fougère Audubon and the girl Rose, when Audubon, at age 18, boarded ship in 1803 to immigrate to the United States, he changed his name to an anglicized form, John James Audubon. From his earliest days, Audubon had an affinity for birds, I felt an intimacy with them. bordering on frenzy must accompany my steps through life. His father encouraged his interest in nature, He would point out the elegant movement of the birds, and he called my attention to their show of pleasure or sense of danger, their perfect forms and splendid attire. He would speak of their departure and return with the seasons, in France during the chaotic years of the French Revolution and its aftermath, the younger Audubon grew up to be a handsome and gregarious man. He played flute and violin, and learned to ride, fence, a great walker, he loved roaming in the woods, often returning with natural curiosities, including birds eggs and nests, of which he made crude drawings. His father planned to make a seaman of his son, at twelve, Audubon went to military school and became a cabin boy. He quickly found out that he was susceptible to seasickness and not fond of mathematics or navigation, after failing the officers qualification test, Audubon ended his incipient naval career. He was cheerfully back on solid ground and exploring the fields again, in 1803, his father obtained a false passport so that Audubon could go to the United States to avoid conscription in the Napoleonic Wars
8.
Brown University
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Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the nine Colonial Colleges established before the American Revolution. At its foundation, Brown was the first college in the United States to accept students regardless of their religious affiliation and its engineering program was established in 1847 and was the first in the Ivy League. It was one of the early doctoral-granting U. S. institutions in the late 19th century, adding master, Browns New Curriculum is sometimes referred to in education theory as the Brown Curriculum and was adopted by faculty vote in 1969 after a period of student lobbying. In 1971, Browns coordinate womens institution Pembroke College was fully merged into the university, Pembroke Campus now operates as a place for dorms and classrooms. Undergraduate admissions is very selective, with a rate of 8.3 percent for the class of 2021. The University comprises The College, the Graduate School, Alpert Medical School, the School of Engineering, the School of Public Health, and the School of Professional Studies. The Brown/RISD Dual Degree Program, offered in conjunction with the Rhode Island School of Design, is a course that awards degrees from both institutions. Browns main campus is located in the College Hill Historic District in the city of Providence, the Universitys neighborhood is a federally listed architectural district with a dense concentration of Colonial-era buildings. On the western edge of the campus, Benefit Street contains one of the finest cohesive collections of restored seventeenth-, Browns faculty and alumni include eight Nobel Prize laureates, five National Humanities Medalists, and ten National Medal of Science laureates. Other notable alumni include eight billionaire graduates, a U. S. Supreme Court Chief Justice, to erect a public Building or Buildings for the boarding of the youth & the Residence of the Professors. Stiles and Ellery were co-authors of the Charter of the College two years later, there is further documentary evidence that Stiles was making plans for a college in 1762. On January 20, Chauncey Whittelsey, pastor of the First Church of New Haven, answered a letter from Stiles, should you make any Progress in the Affair of a Colledge, I should be glad to hear of it, I heartily wish you Success therein. Isaac Backus was the historian of the New England Baptists and an inaugural Trustee of Brown, Mr. James Manning, who took his first degree in New-Jersey college in September,1762, was esteemed a suitable leader in this important work. Manning arrived at Newport in July 1763 and was introduced to Stiles, stiless first draft was read to the General Assembly in August 1763 and rejected by Baptist members who worried that the College Board of Fellows would under-represent the Baptists. A revised Charter written by Stiles and Ellery was adopted by the Assembly on March 3,1764, in September 1764, the inaugural meeting of the College Corporation was held at Newport. Governor Stephen Hopkins was chosen chancellor, former and future governor Samuel Ward was vice chancellor, John Tillinghast treasurer, the Charter stipulated that the Board of Trustees be composed of 22 Baptists, five Quakers, five Episcopalians, and four Congregationalists. Of the 12 Fellows, eight should be Baptists—including the College president—and the rest indifferently of any or all Denominations, the Charter was not the grant of King George III, as is sometimes supposed, but rather an Act of the colonial General Assembly. In two particulars, the Charter may be said to be a uniquely progressive document, the oft-repeated statement is inaccurate that Browns Charter alone prohibited a religious test for College membership, other college charters were also liberal in that particular
9.
Cassin's kingbird
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Cassins kingbird is a large tyrant flycatcher native to western North America. The name of this bird commemorates the American ornithologist John Cassin, adults have a gray head with slightly darker cheeks, a dark unforked tail with a buffy fringe and gray-olive underparts. They have a throat and deep yellow lower breast. Juveniles are duller and have pale edges on their wings, Cassins kingbird and the western kingbird are similar in appearance. Cassins is a larger than the western and the upper parts are a darker gray than the western. This difference can be seen in the image on the left, in the summer, these birds can be found in California and from Montana to Utah, along the eastern Rocky Mountains. Their habitat includes rangelands and savannas and these birds migrate to their winter quarters between Southern California and northern Central America. They are permanent residents in south-central Mexico, and their wintering ranges are west of the Gulf of California on Baja California Sur. They build a bulky nest on a tree limb in mid-story or the canopy of trees. The three to five spotted white eggs have a period of 18 to 19 days. The Cassins kingbird primarily feeds on insects it preys upon from high perches by hawking and it also eats berries and fruits in lesser quantities. The call is a high-pitched shorter followed by a longer chirp, in early spring, presumably after having chosen their mate, they launch into a peculiar dance. With excited high-pitched calls, they hover in unison, wings outstretched and this dance takes place several times a day over several days, over several separate sites in an area covering 2 to 3 acres. The sites chosen for the dance appear to be the sites used as hunting perches during the spring. Interactive range map of Tyrannus vociferans at IUCN Red List maps
10.
Cassin's finch
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Cassins finch is a bird in the finch family, Fringillidae. This species and the other American rosefinches are placed in the genus Haemorhous, adults have a short forked brown tail and brown wings. They have a bill than the purple finch. Adult males are red on the head, breast, back and rump, their back. Adult females have brown upperparts and light underparts with brown streaks throughout. Their breeding habitat is coniferous forest in mountains of western North America as far south as northern New Mexico and Arizona and they move to lower elevations in winter. Northernmost breeding birds migrate south, as do some birds throughout the range of the species, many birds are permanent residents, some non-breeding birds winter as far south as central interior Mexico. These birds forage in trees, sometimes in ground vegetation and they mainly eat seeds, buds and berries, some insects. When not nesting, they feed in small flocks. This bird was named after John Cassin, who was a curator at the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences, cassins finch, along with the purple finch and house finch, was formerly placed in the genus Carpodacus, along with the rosefinches of Eurasia. However, the three North American species are not closely related to the Old World rosefinch radiation, and thus have been moved to the genus Haemorhous by most taxonomic authorities, cassins Finch Identification Cornell Lab of Ornithology – Cornell Lab of Ornithology
11.
Spencer Fullerton Baird
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Spencer Fullerton Baird was an American naturalist, ornithologist, ichthyologist, herpetologist, and museum curator. Baird was the first curator to be named at the Smithsonian Institution and he would eventually serve as assistant Secretary of the Smithsonian from 1850 to 1878, and as Secretary from 1878 until 1887. He was dedicated to expanding the history collections of the Smithsonian which he increased from 6,000 specimens in 1850 to over 2 million by the time of his death. He published over 1,000 works during his lifetime, Spencer Fullerton Baird was born in Reading, Pennsylvania in 1823. His father was also a big influence on Bairds interest in nature, taking Baird on walks and he died of cholera when Baird was ten years old. As a young boy he attended Nottingham Academy in Port Deposit, Maryland and public school in Carlisle, Baird attended Dickinson College and earned his bachelors and masters degrees, finishing the former in 1840. After graduation he moved to New York City with an interest in studying medicine at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and he returned to Carlisle two years later. He taught natural history at Dickinson starting in 1845, while at Dickinson, he did research, participated in collecting trips, did specimen exchanges with other naturalists, and traveled frequently. He married Mary Helen Churchill in 1846, in 1848, their daughter, Lucy Hunter Baird, was born. He was awarded a grant, in 1848, from the Smithsonian Institution to explore bone caves, in 1849 he was given $75 by the Smithsonian Institution to collect, pack and transport specimens for them. It was during this time that he met Smithsonian Secretary Joseph Henry, the two would become close friends and colleagues. Throughout the 1840s Baird traveled extensively throughout the northeastern and central United States, often traveling by foot, Baird hiked more than 2,100 miles in 1842 alone. Upon his arrival in Washington, he brought two railroad box cars worth of his personal collection, Baird would create a museum program for the Smithstonian, requesting that the organization focus on natural history in the United States. His program also allowed him to create a network of collectors through an exchange system and he would ask that members of the Army and Navy collect rare animals and plant specimens from west of the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico. In order to balance the collection, Baird sent duplicate specimens to museums around the country. During the 1850s he described over 50 new species of reptiles, some by himself and their 1853 catalog of the Smithsonians snake collection is a benchmark work in North American herpetology. Baird also was a mentor to herpetologist Robert Kennicott who died prematurely, eventually, he became the Assistant Secretary, serving under Joseph Henry. As Assistant, Baird would help develop a publication and journal exchange and he supported the work of William Stimpson, Robert Kennicott, Henry Ulke and Henry Bryant
