James's Manucode (2 Viewers)

[Björn Bergenholtz]

And what about the last unsolved Mr. James [in James's Key ], the one, and the only one, with ending double-i, as in today's HBW Alive Key entry:

jamesii
Dr W. H. James (fl. 1875) US physician, collector in New Guinea, Torres Strait Is., and northern Queensland, Australia (Graham Fulton in litt.) (subsp. Phonygammus keraudrenii).

... which must be the debated Manucode subspecies or subspecies group (Manucodia) Phonygammus keraudrenii "jamesii" SHARPE 1877 (here) as "Phonygama jamesii" ... no dedication, no explanation, only the note below:

Aleya, S. E. New Guinea, April 1876 ------------ Dr. James [C.]. (Type of species.)

Note that the "C." in scare bracketts is part of the quote, not inserted by me! C. = Collector.

Another clue is found here: "Collected by Dr. James. Purchased of T. Higgins.", which leads us to "T. Higgins", here (p.384), and the "late Dr. James", who apparently was "killed by the natives of Yule Island shortly after his arrival in British New Guinea." With reference further on, to ... here:

A melancholy interest attaches to the present collection of Dr. James ; for it is at once the first, and last, that we shall receive from him. This young naturalist, whose career as a traveller commenced so favourably, and whose energy trampled on so many difficulties, was murdered by natives, as mentioned in a communication of the Rev. S. Macfarlane in ' Nature ' for Nov. 16, 1876: — " We have just heard of the massacre of Dr. James and his partner, a Swede [*], at Yule Island by the natives of New Guinea. They had gone in their large boat to the east side of Hall Sound to shoot Birds of Paradise, when they were attacked by three canoes, and both white men were killed. The native crew managed to get away in the boat, and brought the sad news here (Somerset)." His collection of birds was placed in my hands by his friend, Dr. Alfred Roberts, of Sydney, to whom they had been consigned by the deceased traveller ; and the present paper is an account of this collection. ...
[...]
He discovered the following new species : Phonygama jamesii ...

Trusting this the young Dr. James was killed in 1876 ... which takes us to The Sydney Morning Herald, of 9 Nov. 1876, confirmed in the very hard to read piece: NEW GUINEA.—THE RECENT MASSACRE NEAR YULE ISLAND. (here). A bit more easy to read a week later, in the Melbourne Argus (here).

Ending up with: Dr. James = William Hughes James (1852–1876), US medical doctor, naturalist and collector, etc., etc., ...

Case closed!

Björn

PS. For more details and full story, see the following paper, by the same guy (I assume) who supplied James (Jobling) with the initials ("W. H") above:
Graham R. Fulton. 2017. Dr William H. James 1852–76: medical doctor and naturalist. Bull. B.O.C. 2017 137 (1): pp. 71-87. (here).
The bird in question is mentioned on pp.79-80.

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* The Swede, mentioned as "Carl Thorngren" by Fulton, a k a Karl ditto (in German texts) = Captain (mariner) Carl Johan Törngren (here, in Swedish)

 

[Björn Bergenholtz]

While looking through my notes on Captain Törngren (mentioned in the PS. of post #1*) I had to double-check some of the guys crossing his path, as for example; Mr James (as in this old thread), and ... ouups! realized I didn´t include a link to the OD to the Manucode... (or somehow it got lost).

Well, for completeness sake, to put things in order; "Phonygama jamesii" SHARPE 1877 =here.

Other than that; nothing additional.

Björn

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*Not, as far as I know, commemorated in any bird.