Zoologists 19th century
George Robert Gray was a British zoologist.
Gray practiced ornithology and scales, and for forty years headed the ornithology department of the British Museum, now the Natural History Museum, in London. Gray's major work on ornithology is entitled Genera of Birds (1844-1849), and is decorated with illustrations by David William Mitchell and Joseph Wolf. Gray also described many species of scales, and in 1833 became a founding member of the Royal Entomological Society of London.
William Jardine was a Scottish naturalist, ornithologist, ichthyologist, artist and publisher of works on zoology.
Jardine studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh and was an excellent sportsman. Although his main passion was ornithology, he also studied ichthyology, botany and geology. Sir William Jardine was a prominent Scottish Victorian naturalist, author and publisher of 40 volumes of the popular Naturalist's Library (1833-43). Of these, 14 volumes were devoted to ornithology, 13 volumes to mammals, 7 volumes to entomology, and 6 volumes to ichthyology.
A series in four volumes, Illustrations on Ornithology, co-written with Prideaux John Selby, was published between 1825 and 1843. His book on burrows and fossil tracks, The Ichnology of Annandale, includes fossils from his ancestral estate. Jardine was a leading expert on salmon and trout in the British Isles. His outstanding knowledge of the species was profound that in 1860 he was appointed a member of the Royal Commission on the Salmon Fisheries of England and Wales. His research culminated in the best and most comprehensive monograph on these fish, "British Salmonids," with the remarkable illustrations by Jardine himself. William Jardine's private natural history museum and library are considered the finest in Britain.
François Levaillant was a French ornithologist, traveler and writer.
Levaillant was born in Dutch Guiana, where his father was French consul. He returned with his family to France, where he eventually became a dealer in natural history specimens. At the age of 27, trained as an ornithologist, he traveled to southern Africa with the Dutch East India Company to collect specimens for his collection. Levaillant was one of the first naturalist explorers to venture into uncharted and dangerous Africa to see and study birds in their natural habitat.
Returning to France in 1785 after several years of traveling, he began writing ornithological works based on his diaries. His Histoire naturelle des perroquets (Natural History of Parrots) was published between 1801 and 1805, and his six-volume History of the Nature of Africa was published between 1799 and 1808. Levaillant also wrote the popular book Le Vaillant's Voyage to the Interior of Africa and others. He was one of the first Europeans to make ethnographic observations, empathizing with African peoples and treating them as equals.
Thomas Martyn was a British zoologist, conchologist and entomologist.
Thomas Martyn was the founder of the Academy of Painted Natural History in London - for young men "possessing a natural talent for drawing and painting, to be developed under his immediate sole direction" in the art of describing natural history. He published several illustrated volumes on botany, entomology, and history.
In 1784 Martyn began his major work, The Universal Conchologist. He acquired a large number of shells brought back from Cook's third voyage, many of which are illustrated in the book along with specimens from other famous collections. Originally publishing the work in 1784 as two volumes devoted mainly to shells from the South Seas, Martyn later expanded the work to a four-volume set in French and English containing 160 plates.
