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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

iohannis (1 Viewer)

Mike Earp

UK Birder
United Kingdom
The HBW Alive Key is admirably up-to-date, given James's replacement name was published only today, but I think there is a typo in the species name, which should read subcoerulea:

Prof. Dr. William John Ansorge (1850-1913) British physician in Mauritius, Uganda and Nigeria, zoologist, collector, explorer in tropical Africa (subsp. Sylvia coerulea).​
 
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Shifting bird ...

James, I think you can delete the "probably" part on the other, second iohannis bird in the Key ...

Hemitriccus iohannis SNETHLAGE 1907 (here) as "Euscarthmus iohannis" a k a :eek!:; Iohannis's -, Johannis's -, Joao's -, Johanne's - alt. Johannes's Tody/Pygmy-Tyrant ... wow! ... alt. Amazon Tody-Tyrant (in Swedish: amazontodityrann)
Genannt nach einem der Sammler der Purús-Expedition des Museu Goeldi.
Nothing more in the OD itself, but see here, in the words by Snethlage herself, in Boletim do Museu Goeldi (Museu Paraense) de Historia Natural e Ethnographia, vol. 5 (1907-1908):
Euscarthmus iohannis Snethl.
[...]
O nome foi dado em honra do Sr. João de Sá, que colleccionou o passaro no Rio Purús e que já 14 annos presta os seus serviços como preparador ao Museu Goeldi.
If his name also included Baptista as in "João Baptista de Sá" (as claimed by Beolens & Watkins 2003) is unknown to me. Either way not to confuse with any other men known only as "João Baptista". There seems to be quite a few of them ...

I´m almost glad his not one of "my" guys!

Björn
 
Continuation on Hemitriccus iohannis SNETHLAGE 1907

James, I couldn´t keep my fingers away ...

It does look like his full name truly was João Baptista de Sá.

See the List of Staff (for Museu Goeldi) in the same volume where Snethlage's second text appeared (here).

Also see Sanjad et al (2013), foot-note No. 26 (here, p. 204):
... João Baptista de Sá (?-1909), o mais antigo funcionário do Museu Goeldi na época. Ingressou como servente antes de 1894 e, a partir de 1895, assumiu o cargo de Ajudante de Preparador da Seção de Zoologia.
No birth year found.

Björn
 
Just want to add:

The Eponym Dictionary of Birds claims a lot of rumors:

João Baptista de Sá (DNF) was a collector on the Museu Goeldi expedition to the Rio Purús region of Brazil (1904). Snethlage (q.v.) presumably latinised João into iohannis Rio Purús region of Brazil (1904). Snethlage (q.v.) presumably latinised João into iohannis – hence 'Johannes' in the bird's common name. There is some speculation that he may have been an intimate friend of Ms Snethlage. Although we can find no confirmation of this, our source wrote 'Snethlage was no nun, nor saint for that matter, and very advanced for her times. She seems to have had a number of paramours during her stint there'. There has also been speculation that the name referred to Schönmann, the other collector on the trip, who prepared specimens, but this seems less likely since his forename was Joseph.

Sure the old key claimed based on the discussion here:

João Baptista de Sá (d. 1909) Brazilian taxidermist, collector (Björn Bergenholtz in litt.) (Hemitriccus).
 
Attached is a possible death record 15 Mar 1909 from Cantagalo (which is in Parana) -74 years old = b. 1835

Perhaps some other information there for those that can read Portuguese in cursive.
 

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Perhaps some other information there for those that can read Portuguese in cursive.
(Cantagalo -- formerly 'Cantagallo', as spelled here -- is in Estado do Rio de Janeiro, not in Parana.)

The record is indeed dated 15 Mar 1909; he had died on this day, at 4 in the morning, without medical assistance, of natural death, on the land of the (I think) "Fazenda da Samambaia".
He is described as: "o indigente João Baptista de Sá, de cor branca, brasileiro, tendo setenta e quatro annos de idade, solteiro, operario, e de filiação desconhecida". I.e., indigent, white, Brazilian, 74 year-old, single, worker, and of unknown filiation.
His body was to be buried in the cemetery of the city.

This might quite easily be a namesake, for what I can see.
 
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https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/31235181 -
PESSOAL ADMINISTRATIVO. Tivemos infelizmente, no período relatorial, de lastimar a perda do mais antigo empregado do Museu e de um dos seus mais fieis auxiliares. O Snr. João Baptista de Sá, ajudante de preparador de zoologia, era com effeito o único empregado que tinha prestado os seus serviços a este estabelecimento desde o tempo quando o Museu Paraense era ainda installado no edifício occupado actualmente pela Secção de Agricultura. Desde a reorganisação do Museu, sob a direcção do meu illustre predecessor, elle serviu na secção zoológica, primeiro como servente, depois (desde 1895) como ajudante de preparador, mostrando excellentes aptidões para os misteres de taxidermia, e applicação ao trabalho, quer no serviço interior, quer em diversas expedições que elle acompanhou como preparador. Foi em uma d'estas excursões que antigos padecimentos renaes aggravaram-se de tal forma, que a sua constituição, já enfraquecida, não resistiu por muito tempo depois de sua volta, vindo elle a fallecer no dia 12 de Maio. O seu enterro foi feito ás expensas do Museu e com a participação dos empregados do Museu, para os quaes elle sempre tinha sido um companheiro bom e leal.
Based on this, he would have died on 12 May 1909, shortly after returning from an expedition during which his health had deteriorated (hence, presumably in Belém, Pará, where the Museum is located); his burial was done at the expense of the Museum and with the participation of Museum employees.
 
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Thanks for the translation, Laurent. Yes, I agree this is a namesake. Like so many countries only a very small proportion of records are digitized so trying to find such a common name is fraught...

The only possible record I can find that might be our guy is attached but the only real fact that suggests its him is that he was traveling from Portugal to Para (where Museu Goeldi is) in 1884.

P
 

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And as a side track I discovered The wonder women of ornithology .

And as usual, only women in neornthology are mentioned.

Very important female paleornithologists are:

Hildegarde Howard U.S.A. 1901-1998 described many species and erected the Plotornithidae and recognized their way of locomotion from a fragment of
Cécile Mourer-Chauviré France 1939 who took the initiativr to found SAPE and described mant species, genera and families
Patricia Vickers Rich Australia 1944- described the Dromornithidae
Helen Frances James 1956- U.S.A. An expert on the extinct songbirds of Hawai
Carolina Acosta Hospitaleche, Argentina, an expert on penguins from Antarctica
Claudia Patricia Tambussi, Argentina, an expert on South American fossil birds

and there are many more. Female researchers Always played a big part, and still do, in paleornithology,

Fred
 
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