Mr. Eli Waller's invalid (Eastern) Grass-owl (1 Viewer)

Björn Bergenholtz · Sep 1, 2017

Here´s possibly a contradictory claim on the death of Mr. Eli Waller allegedly commemorated in the eponym ...

walleri as in:
• the invalid "Strix walleri" DIGGLES 1866 (Note: OD* unseen by me!)

Today's HBW Alive Key explains it as:

walleri
[...]
● Eli Waller (d. 1875) Australian taxidermist, collector (syn. Tyto longimembris).

But ... here´s a Photo of Mr. Waller, from "1880" (!?), ... with the inscription:

"Mr Eli Waller, taxidermist, Australian Museum, 1850-56. This photo was taken when he visited London 1880. Had a bird shop Castlereagh St Sydney near King St 1879"

Shortly thereafter he apparently was back in Australia, where he did pass away:

".. Eli Waller, late of Sydney, taxidermist.
Date of Death.—23 May 1881."

(from the Newspaper The Brisbane Courier, 29 June 1891, here, sixth column, below the heading "TRANSMISSION BY DEATH", far down, "CENTRAL DISTRICT", lower part of page).

Therby I assume he didn´t die in "1875" as have been claimed! However no date, nor year, found regarding his birth.

He apparently (earlier, or also) "had a taxidermy shop in Edward Street, Brisbane", here. The same Eli Waller is also noted here.

For whatever it´s worth!

Björn
___________________________________________________________
* Diggles, S. 1866. The ornithology of Australia, 1866, Part VII (of 21 Parts, issued 1865-1870).

l_raty · Sep 1, 2017

Eli James Waller (late of Edward-Street, Brisbane) appears to have died on 23 May 1881, at his residence, 455 Kent-Street, Sydney, aged 51. (So his birth year must have been 1829 or 1830.)
See search results [here].

Björn Bergenholtz · Sep 1, 2017

Well found, Laurent! I´d never seen his Middle name before! :t:

With this info, and the clues given on the sampe page, in the same Brisbane Courier (link in Post #1); "Matilda Waller, late of Sydney aforesaid, widow of deceased", and the next-following part/text: "Eli Waller, aforesaid (presumably his Children); Sarah Hiskett Waller, spinster, William Marham Waller, and Henry Albert Waller. [...] Will dated 4th March, 1879" ... it, in some way, ought to be possible to find his birth.

However; this far I haven´t found more than Laurent!

The same Mr. Waller is also (but without the "James" part) mentioned here, here, here, here ... and elsewhere!

Maybe this note; "(sometimes called Walker)", is the reason why he is so hard to find!

Anyone with more time (and interest, in this particular guy); good luck!

I just happened to notice the Photo from "1880". And got curious.

Björn

mb1848 · Sep 1, 2017

Although not the 1866 OD here is Diggles text about Strix walleri from a later book that reused Ornithology of Australia.
http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/106687#page/61/mode/1up .

l_raty · Sep 1, 2017

I was (almost) forgetting this, but if it's an owl... there is always the Global Owl Project citation list: [OD]

Edit: but there may be a problem, as this is exactly the same as in the Companion to Gould's Handbook, in Mark's link above. Is this correct?

Fred Ruhe · Sep 1, 2017

laurent Raty wrote: "I was (almost) forgetting this, but if it's an owl... there is always the Global Owl Project citation list: [OD]".

The complete listing of known owls (including all fossil owls) up to October 15 2007 is here (we are working on an update, but I cannot tell when it will be published):

http://www2.nrm.se/ve/birds/sape/GlobalOwlProject/index.html

Enjoy,

Fred

Björn Bergenholtz · Sep 2, 2017

l_raty said:
... but there may be a problem, as this is exactly the same as in the Companion to Gould's Handbook, in Mark's link above. Is this correct?

I guess so Laurent, sure looks like it, same text ...

As I understand it; Companion to Gould's Handbook; or, Synopsis of the birds of Australia. [Containing nearly one-third of the whole, or about 220 examples, for the most part from the original drawings. By Silvester Diggles] was an un-paginated Plate work, issued in several parts 1865-1876 ("Strix walleri" was published in part 7), later compiled and bound in three volumes, like the one/s in BHL (from 1877, all three in the same volume, lacking the Plate of "Strix walleri", in spite of the text saying: "This fine new species of Owl is now figured for the first time, ..."), but the [coloured!] Plate is found in the Owl Species Citation List (see your's alt. Fred's links, to OD), today as the subspecies "T. l [Tyto longimembris] walleri".

If valid, or not, simply a synonym, as claimed in today's HBW Alive Key I do not know.

Either way: now it´s no longer "unseen" (by me). Nice. Thank you all! :t:

Eli Waller, (died 1881), of Brisbane, Australia, bird trader, shop-owner, collector and taxidermist, (whose full name was Eli James Waller) ... it will be!

That´ll do ... on my part (at least for my MS). In my MS he´s only mentioned briefly, in connection to Mr. Diggles.
--

l_raty · Sep 2, 2017

Calalp said:
I guess so Laurent, sure looks like it, same text ...

From the introductory text to the Companion [here], I think they are the same single thing, actually.

It seems evident that the author (who had to abandon the work unfinished due to financial issues) would not have produced another work in parallel to this one, also on Australian birds, also started in 1865, also with Strix walleri in part 7 = VII... See also the note added in the BHL copy of the Companion [here], reading "For collation of the parts, see Austral Avian Records, III, 1917, pp. 98-108"; but in this Austr. Av. Rec. paper, [here], Mathews deals with the work calling it Ornithology of Australia. Presumably this was the original title, but was then changed by the author (see in the introductory text: "I am now content to style it "A Synopsis of the Ornithology of Australia ; or, Companion to Gould's Letterpress Handbook,""), and the final title pages were produced at the end of the publication process only...?

Björn Bergenholtz · Sep 2, 2017

l_raty said:
... I think they are the same single thing, actually.

...

That´s, more or less, exactly what I tried to say.

l_raty · Sep 2, 2017

Calalp said:
That´s, more or less, exactly what I tried to say.

Well, I agree, then.

(There's more than one possible explanation when you run into two identical texts, each attributed to a work with its own title. There may be only one work, going by two different titles; or there may be two works, in which case the source may be incorrectly cited in one of the cases. I think the first possibility is what applies here; but, at first, I was a bit afraid that it might be the second one.)

Mr. Eli Waller's invalid (Eastern) Grass-owl (1 Viewer)

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Björn Bergenholtz

(former alias "Calalp")

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Björn Bergenholtz

(former alias "Calalp")

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laurent raty

Fred Ruhe

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Björn Bergenholtz

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l_raty

laurent raty

Björn Bergenholtz

(former alias "Calalp")

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