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Trachyphonus darnaudii commemorates ...? (1 Viewer)

Björn Bergenholtz

Björn Bergenholtz

(former alias "Calalp")
Sweden
Trachyphonus darnaudii PREVOST & DES MURS, (1847-1850?*) commemorates (according to most sources, incl. Jobling 2010): "J. d’Arnaud" who I think was the French explorer and big-game hunter: Joseph Pons (sometimes with hyphen, sometimes not) d’Arnaud (1811–1884).

After reading the inconsistent type description my question is: How do I spell his name correctly?

In the introduction "AVERTISSEMENT" of Voyage en Abyssinie; Zoologie VI it is written (page 2-3):
“Il nous arrivera enfin dʼy joindre la description de quelques espèces avec la transcription des notes y annexées et envoyées au Muséum par un voyageur zélé, M. d’Arnaud, qui parcourt depuis près de cinq ans le contrées arrosées par le Nil Blanc, dont il recherche les sources mystérieuses.”
Click to expand...

... but further on (page 135), in the type description itself, Prevost & Des Murs write:

”Cette espèce, découverte dans le Kordoffan par M. Darnaud, qui étudie le cours du Nil blanc, a été envoyée par lui, en junin 1840, au Muséum d’histoire naturelle de Paris, qui ne possède que ce seul individu.
C’était donc un devoir pour nous de la dédier à ce voyageur distingue comme un homage qui lui est bien dû pour le dévouement qu’il témoigne à la science en faisant généreusement don au Muséum, auquel il n’est pas attaché, de toutes ses découvertes zoologiques, dans le nombre desquelles il s’en trouve de trèsintéressantes, surtout en ornithologie.”
Click to expand...
Without knowing French it is hard to value the two different writings.

Does anyone know for sure?

*For citation see Zoonomen: http://www.zoonomen.net/avtax/frame.html
 
Last edited:
Hi Björn.
I have never seen it spelt Darnaud before, and Google doesn't throw up any examples.
I am not sure how careless French writers would have been in the mid-19th century about this: but he is sometimes spelt "Arnaud", and this is indeed how Werne, who accompanied him up the White Nile, often spelt his name. We do know, of course, of other Frenchmen who introduced a "de" or "d'" before their names to add cachet (I am not saying this is certainly true of him).
If the two quotations you give are lifted exactly from the original, then we can say they both contain a few simple spelling or grammatical errors that do not indicate the highest standards of care; my guess would be that Darnaud is simply a mistake.
I expect to be corrected by someone who knows better !
 
M. (Monsieur) d’Arnaud ... or Darnaud

"Original" excerpts attached.
 

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After digging about a bit more, my ms entry for darnaudi now reads, "Lt.-Col. Joseph-Pons d'Arnaud Bey (1811-1884) French civil engineer in Egyptian service 1831, explorer in the Sudan and Abyssinia 1839-1842." I am not sure how long he was in Egypt (?until 1860). He was given the Ottoman honorary title Bey by Mehmet Ali Pasha, the famed ruler of Egypt.
 
Translation to English?

Anyone, that knows French, feel like having a go?

Excerpts (as earlier in this thread) from Voyage en Abyssinie; Zoologie VI:
“Il nous arrivera enfin dʼy joindre la description de quelques espèces avec la transcription des notes y annexées et envoyées au Muséum par un voyageur zélé, M. d’Arnaud, qui parcourt depuis près de cinq ans le contrées arrosées par le Nil Blanc, dont il recherche les sources mystérieuses.”
Click to expand...

”Cette espèce, découverte dans le Kordoffan par M. Darnaud, qui étudie le cours du Nil blanc, a été envoyée par lui, en junin 1840, au Muséum d’histoire naturelle de Paris, qui ne possède que ce seul individu.
C’était donc un devoir pour nous de la dédier à ce voyageur distingue comme un homage qui lui est bien dû pour le dévouement qu’il témoigne à la science en faisant généreusement don au Muséum, auquel il n’est pas attaché, de toutes ses découvertes zoologiques, dans le nombre desquelles il s’en trouve de trèsintéressantes, surtout en ornithologie.”
Click to expand...
 
At MNHN one bird MNHN 2541 is acknowledged to d'Arnoud, arrived in 1843, but is designated as Trachyphonus margaritatus and another also to d'Arnoud: MNHN 2542 as Trachyphonus squamiceps. The two Trachyphonus darnaudii present in MNHN are collected in 1881. However I still fail to locate the list of specimens that arrived in 1843.....
 
Finally, it happens that we can add the description of some species along with a transcription of the notes attached to them and sent to the Museum by M. d'Arnaud, an enthusiastic traveler, who for nearly five years has been exploring the regions watered by the White Nile, in search of that river's mysterious sources.

This species, discovered in the Kordofan by M. Darnaud, who has been investigating the course of the White Nile, was sent by him in June 1840 to the Museum of Natural History in Paris, which possesses only this single individual.
And so it has been our duty to dedicate it to this distinguished traveler, as the homage that is due him for the devotion he shows to science by so generously making a gift to the Museum, with which he is not otherwise affiliated, of all his zoological discoveries, among which are found some extremely interesting specimens, especially in ornithology.
 
D'Arnaud

Googling the words

d'Arnaud

and

"Nil blanc"

turns up a number of sources that might well be worth having a look at.

Here, for example, is a neat little anecdote:

Dr. Perron, Director of the School of Medicine of Cairo, writes on October 24, 1842, that

"... M. d'Arnaud, who had set out with the financial support of the pasha to discover the sources of the Nile, has been back in Cairo for two days. He reached a point beyond 4 degrees 42 minutes of latitude. He had collected many plants, grains, minerals, and sketches; unfortunately, he was shipwrecked at the fourth cataract of the Nile, and it was all he could do to save his own life after having swum more than two hours along the rocks. In any case, he managed to save his diary. Some objects that he had had taken to land were also saved. He returned without resources, having lost everything, his baggage, money, etc., in the shipwreck. A tremendous loss, the collection of Mr. d'Arnaud...."
 
I don't know whether you're interested in photographs, but there is a very eloquent image on line:

Bibliothèque nationale de France, département Société de Géographie, SG PORTRAIT-74
 
Multilanguage knowhow!

Thank you Rick! Your linguistic knowledge is impressive. Not only did you help me with the Spanish type description of Mellisuga helenae, now you also managed to solve some French "obscurieties" (of mine, I guess French readers have known for years?)

I myself, like you might have noticed, have a hard time finding my way around English!

Your translation will help me to conclude, and "close the book" on my text regarding the mysterious d'Arnaud. Great!

And thanks for the hint on the photo. I already had it in my files, and I think it is, like you said, an eloquent image, typical of its time, from a luckily long gone colonial era. I´m not going to use it even if its one of very few photos of him. If I´m going to illustrate my text with a photo of monsieur d'Arnaud I think I will choose this one (attached). It is just as fair and impartial.
 

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