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Woodward's Eagle & Langrand's Ground-roller … (1 Viewer)

Björn Bergenholtz

Björn Bergenholtz

(former alias "Calalp")
Sweden
Here´s a hint of a small detour from this Forum, regarding two prehistoric, fossil birds "Woodward's Eagle" Amplibuteo woodwardi MILLER 1911 and "Langrand's Ground-roller" Brachypteracias langrandi GOODMAN 2000 that, for the convenience (they´re the experts, it´s their field), goes on in the Bird Paleontology Sub-Forum: http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=275522

For anyone curious; one of the questions is if Woodward in Woodward's Eagle is either:
• the British/Australian ornithologist Bernard Henry Woodward (1846–1912), Curator of Perth Museum, Western Australia – commemorated in White-throated Grasswren Amytornis woodwardi HARTERT 1905, Sandstone Shrike-thrush Colluricincla woodwardi HARTERT 1905 and the subspecie Mirafra javanica woodwardi MILLIGAN 1901
or:
• the fairly unknown Brittish misionaries (in South Africa); the "Woodward Brothers", the two reverends; Robert Blake Woodward (1848–XXXX), and John Deverell Stewart Woodward (1849–XXXX), commemorated in Woodwards’ Batis Batis fratrum SHELLEY 1900.

Or someone else!?
 
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Woops!

Thanks to the quick support of Fred we can suddenly establish that "Woodward's Eagle" Amplibuteo woodwardi (described as "Morphnus woodwardi") doesn´t commemorate any of the Woodwards's I mentioned in my frst post ... but the well-known and (in spite of his trust in the hoax of the "Piltdown Man") acclaimed English geologist and palaeontologist (World leading expert on fossil fishes); Sir Arthur Smith Woodward (1864–1944)!

And that the "Langrand's Ground-roller" Brachypteracias langrandi commemorate the French zoologist, ornithologist, entomologist, conservationist and traveller etc etc Olivier Langrand (19XX–), friend and colleauge to Goodman – an avid birder (107 countries and counting), expert on the birds of southwestern Indian Ocean islands, author or co-author of over 100 scientific publications, including three authoritative books on the avifauna of Madagascar, the Comoros, the Mascarenes, and the Seychelles Islands ....

And just for the fun of it: here´s a photo of the latter, and one of his many books! For anyone curious on the former; there are loads of photos of Sir Smith Woodward on the internet.

Once again thanks Fred!
 

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Update on Landgrand ... and "his" Ground-roller

"Langrand's Ground-roller" Brachypteracias langrandi commemorate the French zoologist, ornithologist, [not entomologist!], conservationist and traveller Olivier Langrand (1958– ), avid birder (120 countries [as of December 2013] and counting), expert on the birds of southwestern Indian Ocean islands, author or co-author of over 100 scientific publications, including several authoritative books on the avifauna of Madagascar, the Comoros, the Mascarenes, and the Seychelles Islands .... friend and former colleague to Steve Goodman, who described this long-gone, extinct specie in year 2000, from fossils found on Madagascar."
 
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Björn Bergenholtz said:
• the fairly unknown Brittish misionaries (in South Africa); the "Woodward Brothers", the two reverends; Robert Blake Woodward (1848–XXXX), and John Deverell Stewart Woodward (1849–XXXX), commemorated in Woodwards’ Batis Batis fratrum SHELLEY 1900.

Or someone else!?
Click to expand...

Batis fratrum (Shelley, 1900) OD here
Stactolaema woodwardi (Shelley, 1895) OD here
Sylvia borin woodwardi (Sharpe, 1877) OD here

The Eponym Dictionary of Birds claims:

Woodwards' Batis Batis fratrum G. E. Shelly, 1900
Garden Warbler ssp. Sylvia borin woodwardi Sharpe, 1877
Woodward's Barbet Stactolaema olivacea woodwardi Shelley, 1895 [Alt. Green Barbet ssp.]
Reverend Robert Blake Woodward (b.1848) and his brother John Deverell Stewart Woodward (b.1849) were Anglican missionaries in Natal, South Africa. They first went to the Transvaal in the early 1870s to farm sheep, and later moved to to Natal to run a plantation. They were both ordained into the Anglican Church (1881). They are believed to have returned to England (1905), although one brother (it is not clear which) is reported to have drowned in the Tugela River. They were both deeply interested in ornithology and sent many specimens to Sharpe (q.v.) at the British Museum. They were co-authors of Natal Birds (1899). The batis's binomial fratrum means 'of the brothers'.
Click to expand...

The old key:

Revd. Robert Blake Woodward (1848-?1905) and his brother Revd. John Deverell Stewart Woodward (1849-?1905) English missionaries to Natal, naturalists, explorers, collectors (subsp. Cryptolybia olivacea, subsp. Sylvia borin).
Click to expand...

Some more on Wikipedia. But why both should have died in 1905 is not clear to me. OK one of them may died in the Tugela River. But the other? See as well here.
 
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John Deverell Stewart Woodward was born in 1849 in Bathford, Somerset, he was baptised on 22 Aug. He had one brother and three sisters. He died on 25 June 1919 at the age of 70, and was buried in Rookwood, New South Wales, Australia. John Deverell Stewart Woodward's brother Richard Blake Woodward was born in 1847 in Brighton, Sussex. He was baptized 24 Nov. A Richard Blake Woodward died in April 1893 in Chertsey, Surrey, at the age of 46, and was buried in Weybridge, Surrey. Robert Blake Woodward is apparently a misprint that appears frequently. All sorts of "facts" in the Biographical Database of Southern African Science appear a little off... I assume that if "Wanderings in America" truly exists it may clear up some of these issues but I am dubious about its existence.

This article is interesting but proves the contradictions in the brother's lives.


Edit: The Surrey "Richard Blake Woodward" was a stockbroker! I now find that both brothers were alive and living in Australia in 1913! See attached. Getting closer..


P
 

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The screenshot is fixed above clearly showing both brothers.

Yes so no mysteries here - no dramatic drownings etc. The two brothers immigrated together to Australia in 1905. Arriving in Melbourne from Durban (attached):

Arrival date1 Mar 1905
Arrival PlaceMelbourne, Australia
ShipEuryalus

There is an irony here regarding the fanciful published accounts. The brothers did die in the same year, it was just not in 1905. Richard B Woodward is registered as dying in Balmain South Sydney in 1919. Unfortunately, I suspect both died of Spanish influenza rife in Sydney that winter.

Thus:
Richard Blake Woodward 1847-1919
John Deverell Stewart Woodward 1849-1919.

P
 

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Just want to point out, and somewhat stress, as well as make sure, simply to avoid any plausible confusions, or possible mix-ups, due to/considering the very Title of this thread itself, and Martin's sudden link yesterday, which took us back to my old first post (#1), from way back in late January 2014 ...

None of the two brothers/reverends Woodward had anything (what-so-ever) to do with the even older (prehistoric) Woodward's Eagle Amplibuteo woodwardi MILLER 1911 (see post #2, as well as #3 and #4).

Regarding that certain taxon nothing has changed.

/B

PS. Phew, got a bit worried there. 😬
 
Morphnus woodwardi L. H. Miller, 1911. is placed in Amplibuteo by Kenneth Campbell jr. in 1979.
The species name honours Dr. A Smith-Woodward (Sir Arthur Smith-Woodward, 1864-1944), expert in fossil fish of the British Museum of Natural History.

Kenneth E. Campbell, jr., 1979
The Non-Passerine Pleistocene Avifauna of the Talara Tar Seeps, Northwestern Peru
Royal Ontario Museum, Life Sciences Contribution 118: 1-203

Loye Holmes Miller, 1911
A Series of Eagle Tarsi from the Pleistocene of Rancho La Brea
University of California Publications, Department of Geology 6(16): 305-316
 
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