BANKS, BAUDIN - and Birds of a Feather
__________________________________________
Robert Pearce
Suite 34
Hollywood Specialist Centre
95 Monash Ave
Nedlands, Western Australia, 6009.
Australia, in its years of discovery and
exploration, has been well served by
generations of naturalists whose curiosity and
spirit of adventure were matched by their
scientific application. Unlike the numerous
botanists whose names are commemorated in
the taxonomy of Australian plants, however,
there have been relatively few birds named
for the naturalists who first described them.
Ornithologists have used descriptive criteria
since the eighteenth century to classify birds
mostly by their physical attributes, such as
colour and bone structure, muscles and
plumage, the presence or absence of certain
organs, the structure and function of bills,
legs and feet. Birds are also distinguished by
their behaviour and song, peculiar
characteristics, nesting habits and even
habitat (Pizzey 1998).
More than half of Australia’s birds are
considered endemic but there is reason to
believe that members of the avifauna in all
southern continents share a common
ancestry. This is particularly significant in the
case of the giant flightless birds of Africa
(Ostrich- Struthio camelus), Australia-New
Guinea (Emu- Dromaius novaehollandiae; the
Cassowary- Casuarius casuarius, and Bennett’s
Dwarf Cassowary - Casuarius Bennetti, which
is confined to New Guinea and some
neighbouring islands)( Encyclopaedia
Brittanica 1985) and South America (Rhea Rhea americanus)(Darwin 1841). Scientific
26
evidence for this thesis is provided by Sibley
and Ahlquist (1990) and their recent studies
of DNA. Well before the advent of molecular
biology, however, Charles Darwin in his
“Origin of Species” questioned the logic of
classification according to geographical
distribution while other naturalists such as
Temminck insisted on applying this concept
of classification to “certain groups of birds”.
The English naturalist George Bennett (18041893), after whom the New Guinea
Cassowary was named, made a number of
visits to the Pacific region, including
Australia, before he qualified in medicine and
returned in 1835 to settle and practice in
Sydney. He became influential as secretary
and curator of the Australian Museum and
provided many specimens of Australian
plants, animals and birds to the Royal Botanic
Gardens, the Zoological Society, the Linnaean
Society, to the British Museum and also to
Doctor Richard Owen, curator of the
Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of
Surgeons in London (Datta 1997) The widelyrecognised Little Crow (Corvus bennetti) is the
only Australian bird named for this doctornaturalist.
In Africa there would appear to be no
shortage of Ostriches despite periods of
intensive hunting for feathers and game, and
this bird was introduced into Australia as
early as 1861. The Australian Emu is even
more common and is now farmed in large
numbers for export of meat, oil and other
Emu products. Some island subspecies of
Emu, however, were among the first to
succumb to European settlement and are now
extinct. The small dark King Island
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Australian Biologist 2002 15 (1)
subspecies and the somewhat larger
Kangaroo Island subspecies were both
hunted by sealers and whalers in the early
19th century. A mounted specimen of the
King Island Emu (Dromaius ater) can be found
in the Museum díHistoire Naturelle in Paris
(Brosse 1983). (This species became extinct
when the last bird died at Malmaison in
1822.)(Fig. 1). However no such specimen
remains of the Kangaroo Island Emu
(Dromaius baudinianus), which was one of
only two birds named for the French
explorer, Nicolas Baudin (Pearce 1995).
A third island Emu subspecies which became
extinct about 1865, the large Tasmanian Emu,
was appropriately named “Dromaius
novaehollandiae diemenensis”. Meanwhile the
Southern Cassowary (Casaurius casaurius
johnsonii) , which is Australia’s second largest
native bird and, despite its name, is confined
to the coastal rainforests of North
Queensland, has suffered significantly
through the destruction of its natural habitat
and the spread of settlement (Pizzey 1998).
The South American Rhea (Rhea americanus) is
known to be related genetically to the other
large flightless birds of Australia and South
Africa. A rare subspecies observed by
Charles Darwin during his visit to Patagonia
with Fitzroy and the “Beagle” in 1836 called
“Darwin’s Nandu” (Brosse 1983) was named
for him (Rhea darwinii) by the famous British
ornithologist John Gould, who also described
a number of Australian birds before setting
foot in this country. In his “Zoology of the
Voyage of HMS Beagle” Darwin described
Figure 1. The King Island Emu “Dromaius ater”, seen by French explorers in 1802 and known to
be extinct since 1822. From Moorhead (1978, p172). Editor’s note: The figures in this paper are
designed to be viewed in colour. Because of this, we have loaded this manuscript, with its colour figures,
on the AIBiol web site ((http://www.aibiol.org.au)
Australian Biologist 2002 15 (1) ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
27
the habits and habitat of the Rhea, and among
others a colourful little finch from South
America which Gould also named after him
“Tangara darwinii” (Brosse 1983). In fact
Darwin used the modification of finches’
beaks, which on different Galapogos islands
had evolved to provide different methods of
survival, to support his theories of natural
selection (Moorehead 1978).
Although the “Beagle” had completed its first
voyage, which included visits to various parts
of Australia, in 1836, two years before Gould
came to this country, Darwin was content to
classify much of his own vast collection and
subsequently published his “Journal of
Researches into Geology and Natural History
of the countries visited during the Voyage of
H.M.S. ‘Beagle’ around the world, under the
command of Capt. Fitzroy, R.N.” in 1840
(Pizzey & Knight 1998). (He named a new
species of dolphin after his captain (Delphinus
fitzroyi) while Fitzroy was prepared to
identify a peak near their encampment in
Tierra del Fuego “Mount Darwin”, now part
of the Darwin Range). By this time (18371843) the “Beagle” was again in Australian
waters, and under the command of Captain
John Wickham and later of Captain John Lort
Stokes was engaged in a coastal survey,
particularly around the north-west where
Beagle Bay and the town of Wickham now
stand. Stokes discovered and named the
Victoria River and Port Darwin. He surveyed
the Gulf of Carpentaria and, although not a
collector, he corresponded with several
naturalists including Gould during a
prolonged visit to Perth.
Although he did arrange for Richard Owen to
describe his mammalian fossils and John
Gould prepared the chapter on birds in the
official “Zoology of the Voyage of the Beagle”
, perhaps because of his personal involvement
no Australian birds were named to
commemorate Darwin himself. However the
28
South Polar Skua (Catharacta mackormicki) a
powerful, bulky seabird which breeds in the
Antarctic and migrates north in the winter to
all major oceans was undoubtedly named
after the surgeon-naturalist Robert
MacCormick of the “Beagle” (Pizzey &
Knight 1998). He left the ship at Rio to be
replaced by his assistant Benjamin Bynoe, a
man who later accompanied several voyages
to Australia as the surgeon on convict ships
(Bateson 1974). Bynoe collected numerous
specimens of Australian animals, plants and
birds which were returned to England for
identification. He found the Painted Finch
(Emblema or Zonoeginthus pictus) in 1840 and
is credited by Gould with the discovery of the
Spinifex (or Plumed) Pigeon (Geophaps
plumifera) in our north-west (Serventy &
Whittell 1962). A Western Australian Gecko,
(Heterotia bynoei) named by Grey in 1845,
commemorates this surgeon-naturalist (Watts
1998).
Very occasionally we find the names of
famous men or localities incorporated in the
species name - eg Macquarie, Mcleay, King,
Bourke, Gawler, Grey and New Holland
(novaehollandiae), or commonly in the
popular, non-scientific names such as the
Major Mitchell’s Cockatoo (Cacatua leadbeateri
- Benjamin Leadbeater was a notable,
nineteenth century London ornithologist and
taxidermist ), Gurney’s Eagle (Aquila gurneyi),
the Broadbent Bristlebird (D a s y o r n i s
broadbenti), Abbott’s Booby (Papasula abbotti endangered, found only on Christmas
Island), Albert’s Lyrebird (Menura alberti),
Macleay’s Honeyeater (Xanthotis macleayana)
and Lambert’s Fairy Wren (Malurus lamberti).
Sadly the Gouldian Finch (Erythrura gouldiae),
one of only two Australian birds named for
Gould himself, is now an endangered species
(Pizzey & Knight 1998). The Silvereye
(Zosterops gouldi) or “greenie” is widely
distributed over the south west of Western
Australia (Serventy & Whittell 1962).
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Australian Biologist 2002 15 (1)
While Cook’s Petrel (Pterodroma cookii) is
named for Captain James Cook a similar
species known as Gould’s Petrel has received
an appropriately descriptive name
(Pterodroma leucoptera). Meanwhile, of the
many species of petrels visiting our shores,
there is a New Zealand “race” of Grey-Faced
Petrel named after John Gould. And although
the Southern Giant-Petrel, (Giant Fulmar,
colloquially referred to as “Nelly” or
“Stinker”) is scientifically correct with the
name “Macronectes giganteus”, its northern
cousin the Northern Giant-Petrel (Macronectes
halli) is commonly known as Hall’s Petrel,
named for the Victorian ornithologist, Robert
Hall (1867-1949) who became the curator of
the Tasmanian Museum in Hobart (Serventy
& Whittell 1962).
McLeay, but to honour W.S. Macleay, a
famous Sydney collector of the 1870s.
The locality of initial sighting or perhaps that
considered to be the primary habitat of a new
species has frequently been incorporated in
the species name but on a broader scale there
are numerous species named for New
Holland (novaehollandiae), New Zealand, New
Guinea and associated islands. Of particular
interest are the five penguin species which,
though known to be vagrant to distant
locations have been given the names of their
major breeding grounds - they are Spheniscus
m a g e l l a n i c u s , Aptenodytes patagonicus,
Pygoscelis papua, Pygoscelis antarctica and
Pygoscelis adeliae (Pizzey 1998).
The Jardine Triller , a name given to the
Cicadabird (Coracina tenuirostris) by John
Gould, was almost certainly observed by John
Jardine who established the settlement of
Somerset on Cape York in 1863. The younger
brother of Sir William Jardine, the
outstanding Scottish ornithologist of the
nineteenth century, John Jardine made
collections of birds from North Queensland
which were later acquired by Gould for
description and inclusion in his “Birds of
Australia” (Gould 1865).
John Gould (1804-1881), best known for his
superlative paintings and published
descriptions of birds from all countries,
received specimens for identification and
presented a paper on Australian birds to the
Zoological Society in London in 1833 (Sauer
1982). He was a contemporary of the Gray
brothers , George and John, of the British
Museum, and of Richard Owen the great
British comparative anatomist at the Royal
College of Surgeons, of William Hooker of
Kew Gardens and of the Scottish
ornithologist William Jardine.
Two Logrunners whose habitat is confined to
the coastal rainforest of North Queensland
have been named for naturalists. They are the
Southern or Spinetailed Logrunner (Orthonyx
temminckii) and the Northern Logrunner or
“Chowchilla” (Orthonyx spaldingii) ,
sometimes referred to as the Auctioneer Bird
because of its raucous chanting choruses.
Another bird found in this limited range is
Macleay’s Honeyeater (Xanthotis macleayana)
named, not for the influential Colonial
Secretary of New South Wales, Alexander
One of many ornithologists known to have
corresponded with Gould and who supplied
bird specimens from his explorations in
Australia’s north-west was Sir George Grey
(1812-1898) who later became Governor of
South Australia, and subsequently of New
Zealand and also of Cape Province (Clark
1979). Another, who accompanied the
Brockman expedition to the north-west
Kimberley region in 1901, was Dr FM House.
Mt House and the familiar Black Grass-Wren
(Amytornis housei) of the Kimberleys were
Australian Biologist 2002 15 (1) ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
29
named for him (Madden & Katanning 1988).
The Eyrean Grasswren, so-called because of
its habitat and limited range in arid country
of the central Australian Simpson/Strzlecki
Deserts around Lake Eyre, was given the
scientific name Amytornis goyderi.
When he eventually sailed for Australia in
1838 Gould was accompanied by a
professional collector and taxidermist named
John Gilbert, whom he sent to the Swan River
Colony while Gould himself concentrated on
the Eastern States and Tasmania. In Hobart
Gould employed as his agent a local
schoolmaster, the Rev. Thomas Ewing, and
the Tasmanian Thornbill (Acanthiza ewingi) is
named for this amateur collector. The
migratory Rose-Crowned Fruit-Dove,or
Pigeon (now Ptilinopus regina) once also bore
his name.
Gilbert arrived in Perth only months after the
German botanist Johann Priess (1811-1883)
and both men contributed enormously to the
knowledge of natural history in the new
colony (Serventy & Whittell 1962). Although
Gilbert found and preserved many fine
specimens, including the now endangered
Noisy Scrub-bird (Atrichornis clamosus) from
the far south-west of Western Australia, none
bears his name. Gilbert is commemorated
however, in the scientific name of Gilbert’s
Potoroo (Potorous gilberti), a small marsupial
thought to be extinct until it was rediscovered
in the southern part of Western Australia in
1994 (Strahan 1983). There is also the Gilbert
River in Queensland’s gulf country from his
association with the 1845 Leichhardt
expedition ( Leichhardt 1847). During this
overland trek to Port Essington (Darwin) John
Gilbert was killed by natives when they were
within days of their destination (Clark 1979).
When Joseph Banks, the fourth in his line by
that name, was a fourteen year old at Eton,
his mind turned to botany, an interest which
30
gratefully relieved the tedium of more
classical studies. Subsequently the whole
range of natural philosophy occupied his
leisure time until, at seventeen he entered
Christ Church (1760) as a gentleman commoner at Oxford, one of those referred to
as the “privileged prodigals” (O’Brian 1987).
When his father died before Joseph was
twenty-one he inherited estates which yielded
a very comfortable income of six thousand
pounds annually. He was elected a Fellow of
the Royal Society in 1766 and without at that
time having puiblished any scientific papers.
A year later he joined James Cook in his
voyage on the “Endeavour” to observe the
transit of Venus.
Not only Banks (Calyptorhynchus banksii) but
other members of the “Endeavour” crew such
as Daniel Carl Solander (Pterodroma solandri),
Sydney Parkinson (Procellaria parkinsoni), and
even Cook himself (Pterodroma cookii, and the
Red-crowned Parakeet of Norfolk Island Cyanoramphus
n o v a e z e l a n d i a e cookii,
endangered)) have
been
suitably
commemorated in avian taxonomy. Oddly
enough the list does not include Surgeon John
White who was appointed Surgeon General
to the First Fleet and to the Colony of New
South Wales (Simpson & White 1988). Much
of our knowledge of the First Fleet comes
from his journal which was published in
London in 1790. It contains many insights
into the natural history of Australia,
including sixty-five plates of “nondescript
animals, birds, lizards, serpents, curious
cones of trees and other natural productions.”
(White 1790). (A tiny seahorse found in
Sydney Harbour “Hippocampus whitei” was
named for him.) Among the birds he
described was the Port Jackson Thrush which
does not appear similar to the Bassian Thrush
(Zoothera lunulata), sometimes referred to as
White’s Thrush and therefore possibly
indicating another White.
The tiny Grey
Honeyeater (Canopophila whitei) is known to
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Australian Biologist 2002 15 (1)
have been named for Captain SA White,
(1870-1954) a South Australian ornithologist
and plant collector (Flora of Australia Part 1
1998).
Banks divided the specimens he sent home
between the British Museum and the famous
surgeon John Hunter whose natural history
interests were eclectic. Surgeon John White
also directed a number of interesting
specimens and scientific questions to Hunter
who died in 1793, just two years before White
returned to England.
Of the French expeditions to visit Australia
the major collections of Australian flora and
fauna were made by J.J.H. de Labillardiere
(1966) who sailed with d’Entrecasteau on the
“Recherche”. Most of the French naturalists
on this and other voyages were medically
qualified and of these Leschenault, Peron,
Quoy, Gaimard, Lesson, Bellefin,etc. obtained
specimens for later description on their return
to France (Pearce 1995). Unfortunately most
of their Commanders did not survive the
journey and publication of their official
reports was often considerably delayed. The
Scrub-Fowl of the Kimberleys (Megapodius
freycinet) was named for the commander of
the “Uranie”, Louis de Saulces de Freycinet ,
who visited our western coast in 1819
accompanied by his wife Rose. The Greater
Sand Plover (Charadrius leschenaultii), named
for the doctor-naturalist, Jean-Baptiste Louis
Claude Theodore Leschenault de la Tour,
who sailed with Baudin, is a regular summer
migrant to Australia, breeding prolifically
through a wide range from Turkey to
southern Siberia. Leschenault was possibly
the first European to meet and observe the
Aboriginal people of the south-west, but
apart from his report, which was appended to
Freycinet’s chronicle of the expedition under
the title “On the vegetation of New Holland
and Van Diemen’s Land”, his findings were
never completely described or published
(Pearce 1997).
The Black Butcherbird (Cracticus quoyi) has
been named for the French surgeon on
Baudin’s “Geographe”, Jean Rene Constant
Quoy, and “Quoyornis leucurus” was the
generic name originally used for the
Mangrove Robin (Peneoenanthe pulverulenta),
first observed by these French visitors in
1802? The wide-ranging White-Headed Petrel
(Pterodroma lessonii) commemorates Dr Rene
Primevere Lesson, Assistant Surgeon on
Duperrey’s ship “La Coquille”, which
circumnavigated the globe in 1822-25.
Dr Joseph-Paul Gaimard, surgeon naturalist
on three separate French expeditions to
Australia between 1800 and 1832, is
commemorated in the name, not of a bird, but
that of the small Tasmanian Bettong
(Bettongia gaimardi) while the talented artist
on Baudin’s “Geographe”, Charles Alexandre
Lesueur, who was subsequently appointed
conservator of the Museum of Natural
History at LeHavre, was similarly honoured
in the naming of the Burrowing Bettong or
“Boodie” (Bettongia lesueur). Several western
landmarks, including Cape Lesueur, Mount
Lesueur and Lesueur Island were also named
for him (Marchant 1982).
Nicolas Baudin ( 1754-1803) who commanded
the “Geographe” (1801-1803) was honoured
in the naming of two birds, one of which (the
Kangaroo Island Emu “D r o m a i u s
baudinianus”) is now extinct. The other is the
Long-billed Black Cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus
baudinii). Commonly referred to as “Baudin’s
Cockatoo”, it was first sighted in the
Geographe Bay area but is found ranging
over heavily forested areas of the south-west
of Western Australia (Pearce 1996) (Fig. 2).
The Short-Billed
“Carmody’s”
BlackCockatoo (Calyptorhynchus latirostris) is the
more familiar “White-tailed Black-Cockatoo”
Australian Biologist 2002 15 (1) ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
31
Figure 2. Calyptorhynchus baudinii - the Long-billed Black “Baudin’s” Cockatoo, commonly seen
in Australia’s south-west and the southern wheatbelt of Western Australia.
32
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Australian Biologist 2002 15 (1)
of the south-west, extending beyond the
Darling Range and into the southern
wheatbelt.
The distinctive Glossy Black Cockatoo
(Calyptorhynchus lathami) with its yellowedged red tail panel was named for the
English doctor-ornithologist, John Latham,
who in 1788 was one of the founders of the
Linnaean Society ( Encyclopaedia Britannica
1985). Latham is also commemorated in the
scientific name of the common Australian
Brush-Turkey (Alectura lathami) and in the
generic name of the Swift Parrot (Lathamus
discolor) which is considered endemic to
Tasmania in that it breeds only in this State.
The so-called Red-Tailed Black Cockatoo
(Calyptorhynchus banksii) is probably found in
all Australian states but is definitely more
common in the northern inland and western
regions, far from the eastern coastal areas
where it may have been seen by Joseph Banks
in 1770. This bird is one of a series of
endangered species depicted on recent stamp
issues from Australia Post (Fig. 3).
The taxonomy, both scientific and popular, of
our indigenous fauna is replete with the
names of those who were involved in their
discovery. Of the naturalists who
accompanied the earliest French and British
expeditions with scientific intent the majority
were from the medical profession. With some
training in the natural sciences, the emphasis
in their collecting was on botany while
ornithologists were gradually to become
recognised as a separate breed. In fact
specialisation in the field was a later
development but the significance of
influential “collectors” who constantly sought
new and exotic specimens for public or
private display cannot be denied. While the
scientific attention to avian taxonomy has
benefited through adherence to the binomial
Linnaean system since it was introduced we
can appreciate those who were involved in
the collection and description of new species
through the incorporation of their names in
this scientific record.
Figure 3. The Red-tailed Black Cockatoo “Calyptorhynchus banksii”, once wide-ranging
throughout the northern inland and western parts of Australia - now considered endangered
and depicted here on a recent stamp series issued by Australia Post.
Australian Biologist 2002 15 (1) ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
33
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