Mr Bel in Bel's silver pheasant (1 Viewer)

Another text, not necessarily in need of translation, for our French knowing friends ...

The Mr Bel commemorated in the subspecie Bel's silver pheasant Lophura nycthemera beli is (as I understand it): ”M. [Monsieur = Mr] Marc Bel”. And I think I have a clue of who he was ...

But before that; does the type description reveal anything else about him? Something like how he obtained this bird, "his own" silver pheasant? Maybe a sentence or a frase worth quoting, or ... does it explain if he collected it himself or if he just bought it?

Oustalet, E. 1898. Notice sur une espèce, probablement nouvelle, de Faisan de l’Annam. Bulletin du Museum D'Histoire Naturelle , Paris. 4 no.6: 258-261. (attached)

Bel gave Milne Edwards a living pair; the birds made it through the winter with no problem, and at the time of Oustalet's writing, had produced seven healthy young. Doesn't say where Bel got them.

Some additional questions ...

Rick,
Once again thanks.

So Bel gave Milne Edwards a living pair!? In 1897? On his return to Europe ... and no one to Oustalet? Is there something that reveals why it was described in a French journal? Or something that explains why Milne Edwards didn´t describe it himself!?

I must have been absent-minded ...

Rick,
Just a pure lapse of mine. I was thinking of all the different British Edwards ...

This "Milne Edwards" is, of course, the French zoologist Alphonse Milne Edwards (1835-1900), whose family name quite often is written with hyphen, as: Milne-Edwards, director (from 1891) of Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris.

Now, when I´ve come to my sences, it all makes much more sence!
Now its easy to finish the entry on M. [Monsieur = Mr] Marc Bel.

Björn Bergenholtz said:

No. 5 – beli in …
● the subspecies "Bel's Silver Pheasant" Lophura nycthemera beli MILNE EDWARDS 1897: "M. Marc Bel"
= Mr. (M. = Monsieur) Marc Bel – that personally brought these birds to Paris in 1897, after his visit to French Indochina.

This Mr. Bel could, might be (!?) the French Mining engineer Jean Marc Bel (1855–1930), that traveled the World (Northern Bolivia in 1888–1889 and 1896, Transvaal in South Africa in 1892, several Countries in South East Asia in 1893, 1895, 1896–1897 and African Kongo 1906–1908). Renown member of the two prestigious French Societies: Société de géographie and Académie des sciences d’outre-mer.

Click to expand...

He was probably born in Biot (Département Alpes-Maritimes). I tried to check Archive en ligne ètat civil but this part seems not to work at the moment.

According CTHS - BEL Marie Jean Marc he was born 22 April 1855 in Biot died 16 January 1931 in Paris and his full name was Marie Jean Marc Bel.

This is confirmed by his death record Visionneuse - Archives de Paris p. 8/31

So a small amendment to The Key to Scientific Names - Birds of the World. We might find him in Léonore as well.


P.S. Picture of him Jean-Marc Bel (1855-1930) - Auteur - Ressources de la Bibliothèque nationale de France