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Iris's Broad-billed Roller (1 Viewer)

Björn Bergenholtz

Björn Bergenholtz

(former alias "Calalp")
Sweden
Short question ...

Who´s Iris Darnton? The British Field ornithologist, Author of "Jungle journeys in Ceylon", who rediscovered (what she believed was) the Broad-billed Roller "Eurystomus orientalis laetior" on Ceylon in 1950 ...

Details here (p.22). She´s apparently commemorated in the subspecies Eurystomus orientalis irisi (OD unseen by me).

Today's HBW Alive Key tells us:
irisi
Iris Sheila Darnton née Moreton (b. 1900) British conservationist, field-ornithologist (subsp. Eurystomus orientalis).
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Is she equal of the British botanist "Iris Sheila Collenette, formerly Iris Sheila Darnton (born 1927)", explorer of the Flora of Borneo ... ?

Anyone know?
 
This race was named in honor of Mrs. Iris Darnton of Sissinghurst Court, Kent, who in 1950 discovered a pair which enabled the clarification of the systematic position of the Ceylon form which was suspected of belonging to a separate race (Meise 1950, and Darnton 1951).
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In here would be indeed her. I assume another fail of The Eponym Dictionary of Birds. In 1986 published by her Illustrated Guide to the Flowers of Saudi Arabia. She was honored as well in Aloe collenetteae and Rhytidocaulon sheilae.

In her book Extract here she is vom Sissinghurst too.
 
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Sure makes one wonder why Bloomsbury (not a small publishing company) didn´t supply The Eponym Dictionary of Birds with an Editor (worth the name).
 
This name was overlooked as one that was in need of emendation in H&M4, it seems.
(The taxon is recognized there, albeit with a footnote questioning its validity; but it should have been made "irisae" under the reading of the Code they applied.)
 
l_raty said:
This name was overlooked as one that was in need of emendation in H&M4, it seems.
(The taxon is recognized there, albeit with a footnote questioning its validity; but it should have been made "irisae" under the reading of the Code they applied.)
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By the reading of the Code they applied, did you mean Art. 32.5.1.1(1999)? As in the article Justified (and ancient?) corrections to avian names under Article 32.5.1.1 of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature. And in Appendix 8 of v. 1 & vol.2??
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/272420717_05_Appendix_8_Spelling_issues .
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/272420719_Appendix_8_Spelling_Issues .
https://www.researchgate.net/public...International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature .
I take it that, when, in the originalwork,thereisinternalinformationshowingthatthespellingdoesnotreflectthisinformation is this section: This race was named in honor of Mrs. Iris Darnton of Sissinghurst Court, Kent, who in 1950 discovered a pair which enabled the clarification of the systematic position of the Ceylon form which was suspected of ... . Zoonomen lists Ceylon Administrative Report which is Administration Report of Director, National Museums of Ceylon as the publication the name was in. This may have been published on its own but it was in the November 1951 issue of Spolia Zeylanica.
 
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Full dedication (here):
This race was named in honor of Mrs. Iris Darnton of Sissinghurst Court, Kent, who in 1950 discovered a pair which enabled the clarification of the systematic position of the Ceylon form which was suspected of belonging to a separate race (Meise 1950, and Darnton 1951). The birds discovered by Mrs. Darnton which were secured by the Colombo Museum taxidermist, together with the other specimen, and published of yet others, now show that this view is correct.
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That, together with the emotionally infected story of "The Broad-billed Roller incident" told by Arjun Guneratne (2015), pp.22-24, but most of all combined with the following phrases told by Iris herself (in that certain book; Jungle Journeys in Ceylon, 1975), here:
... as they might well be a new subspecies, he convinced me that this was essential, reminding me that the tree on which I had seen them was so near the road that they might be shot by any trigger happy passer-by. Of course he was right; and on examination the birds were proved to be a new subspecies and were named after me, IRISII. This was indeed an unexpected honour, and the fact that a visiting ornithologist had discovered a new bird for Ceylon made headline news.
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... makes it, in my mind, pretty safe to claim:

= the English botanist, ornithologist and frequent traveller Iris Sheila Collenette, "formerly" (née!) Iris Sheila Darnton (born 1927), repeated visitor to Sri Lanka (Ceylon) in the late 1940's and in the earliest 1950's, in Trinidad 1953, explorer of the Flora of Borneo in 1954, in Saudi Arabia in 1983, ... etc. etc. ... "

Born 1927, Sissinghurst Court, Cranbrook, Kent, England ... " After a return visit to England she married the geologist Collenette, and is now [i.e. in 1968] living at Jesselton in N. Borneo, occasionally accompanying her husband on his field trips" ...

She´s also noted (for example) here and here (with a Photo of Miss Darnton!) ... and similarly on various botanical web pages.

Anyone still in doubt?

Björn

PS. Where Beolens et al picked up "née Moreton (1900–... " (!?), unfortunately repeated in today's HBW Alive Key, is unknown to me.
 
Short return to the subspecies Eurystomus orientalis irisi DERANIYAGALA 1951 ...

A Google Snippet view of the OD in Spolia Zeylanica 1951 here, clearly shows this scientific name written "irisi" (and not "irisii" as the lady in question wrote it herself).

Just a quick confirmation!
--
 
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"... the birds were proved to be a new subspecies and were named after me, ..."

Iris Darnton, Jungle Journeys in Ceylon, 1975."​
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Note that she was called "Miss Darnton" in Flora Malesiana (1958).

I think we can forget about her mother.
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Calalp said:
Note that she was called "Miss Darnton" in Flora Malesiana (1958).

I think we can forget about her mother.
--
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Wasn't Jungle Journeys in Ceylon written by the mother (Mrs Darnton) not the daughter (Miss Darnton); the obituary in Cactus and Succulent Journal says the latter wrote (only) two books.
 
Wow, you mean that I´ve been wrong the whole thread! :eek!:

I thought she just kept her maiden name as an Author (not that rare) ...

However, I´m off to work, but will look into it again. in due course.

Meanwhile; don´t hesitate to prove me wrong.
 
Some discussion [here] -- may be of interest...?
(This suggests in any case that one Iris Dorrie Moreton married one Rupert Edward Darnton [born (von) Schunck -- his father John Edward had the name of the family changed in Darnton in 1915], from whom she had at least two daughters, one of them also named Iris.)

Iris Sheila Darnton published her books (An Illustrated guide to the Flowers of Saudi Arabia, 1985; Wildflowers of Saudi Arabia, 1999) under the name "Sheila Collenette"; this is also how she is called in her obituary. (Use of the middle name would not be unusual if she shared her first name with her mother.) She is referred in botanical nomenclature as 'Collen.'; plants named after her are called sheilae, collenetteae or collenetteana. Nothing suggests that she would have used 'Iris', or 'Darnton'. She was admittedly presented as 'Miss Darnton' in Flora Malesiana in 1958, despite being said to have married Collenette already, but this may be justified by the fact that, when she collected the specimens that are listed there (1954), she was still single. (These specimens were presumably deposited in the British Museum Herbarium under her maiden name.)
The obituary says that she spent some time in Ceylon with her parents after WW2. On the other hand, it doesn't say a single word about birds or ornithology, and certainly nothing about 'her' roller.

I think there is a good chance that Mike is right.
 
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As I understand it, Jungle Journeys in Ceylon is an account of the author's travels around Sri Lanka during 1947. She spent six months with her husband travelling around the Island's coast with trips to the interior. I've just ordered a copy and will give an update if that is not the case.
 
Backstep

Ok, guys ... I retract!

I was fooled and lead astray by the "Sheila" part mentioned in both The Eponym Dictionary of Birds (2014) and the HBW Alive Key (until I started to mess things up with my post #1). Shame on me! I should have been more cautious.

I do think we´re dealing with the Mother! See the following links, all, in various degrees, backing it up; here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here ... and onwards. My error. Sigh!

So we´re back to the version in post #1, with a possibly altered second first name:

• the subspecies Eurystomus orientalis irisi
= Mrs Iris Darnton, née Moreton (born 1900), British ornithologist, aviculturalist and world-wide traveller (as well as film-maker and painter), Member of the BOU (from 1932) [.... which ought to be pretty odd if born in -27 ... ;)], Fellow of the Royal Geographic Society, Author of Jungle Journeys in Ceylon (1975), wifte of Rupert Edward Darnton [born and pre-1915; (von) Schunck], of Sissinghurst Court, Cranbrook, Kent, England ... whose full name most likely was Iris Dorie (or Dorrie?) Darnton.

Also possibly linked to the Iris Darnton Foundation, here.

Maybe she was still alive in 1983, as here, we find a certain "I. D. Darnton" re-elected... !?

Ayone knows when Mrs Iris Darnton passed away?

Not to confuse with her (twin) daughter the botanist Iris Sheila Collenette, née Darnton (1927–2017). Nor with the latters twin sister Avril Darnton.

Thanks Mike, and Laurent! For putting me straight (and things in Order)! :t:

And: Sorry for the confusion!

Björn

PS. Now we´ll see if Mike agree, after having recieved and read the book Jungle Journeys in Ceylon. I sure hope Mrs Darnton mentions her husband by name, i.e. Rupert (Edward) Darnton, in it. If so, case closed. This far I strongly doubt that it´s written by her daughter Iris Sheila (born in 1927):
Details the Author's 1947 journey to Sri lanka, then known as Ceylon, and the journey she made with her husband around the Island's coast with trips to the interior. [here]
Click to expand...
 
Calalp said:
Now we´ll see if Mike agree, after having recieved and read the book Jungle Journeys in Ceylon. I sure hope Mrs Darnton mentions her husband by name, i.e. Rupert (Edward) Darnton, in it. If so, case closed. This far I strongly doubt that it´s written by her daughter Iris Sheila (born in 1927):
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My order was cancelled by the seller but a search of the book's contents on Google books reveals that Iris's husband was, indeed, Rupert.
 

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