Ten thousand birds : ornithology since Darwin

The Resource Ten thousand birds : ornithology since Darwin

Label

Ten thousand birds : ornithology since Darwin

Title remainder

ornithology since Darwin

Statement of responsibility

Tim Birkhead, Jo Wimpenny, Bob Montgomerie

Title variation

10,000 birds

Language

eng

Summary

A thoroughly engaging and authoritative history of modern ornithology, tracing how the study of birds has been shaped by a succession of visionary and often-controversial personalities, and by the unique social and scientific contexts in which these extraordinary individuals worked. This beautifully illustrated book opens in the middle of the nineteenth century when ornithology was a museum-based discipline focused almost exclusively on the anatomy, taxonomy, and classification of dead birds. It describes how in the early 1900s pioneering individuals such as Erwin Stresemann, Ernst Mayr, and Julian Huxley recognized the importance of studying live birds in the field, and how this shift thrust ornithology into the mainstream of the biological sciences. The book tells the stories of eccentrics like Colonel Richard Meinertzhagen, a pathological liar who stole specimens from museums and quite likely murdered his wife, and describes the breathtaking insights and discoveries of ambitious and influential figures such as David Lack, Niko Tinbergen, Robert MacArthur, and others who through their studies of birds transformed entire fields of biology
Birds

Cataloging source

UKMGB

Dewey number

598.09

Illustrations

Index

index present

LC call number

QL672.7

LC item number

.B568 2014

Literary form

non fiction

Nature of contents

bibliography

Context

Context of Ten thousand birds : ornithology since Darwin

Structured data from the Bibframe namespace is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License by Memorial Hall Library. Additional terms may apply to data associated with third party namespaces.

Context