! Such a great post ! thanks for sharing !
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Welcome to BirdForum and the Bird Name Etymology Subforum, "Jack23"!
This said without knowing if your comment was either ironic alt. sarcastic, or not ..? (I didn't deliver much, in post #21, I simply noted a case of what seems like some sort of confusion, different claims/names, etc.).
However, just to be on the safe side, I had a quick look at the three valid (full) species with the name
stalkeri (
none of them coined by Mathews):
• Bicoloured White-eye
Tephrozosterops stalkeri OGILVIE-GRANT 1910 (
i.e. 16th of March 1910,
here), as "
Tephras stalkeri", a k a Rufescent Dark-eye/Ibon, Ceram/Kakopi/Karopi White-eye and/or Stalker's White-eye: "... from a collection of birds made by the late Mr.
Wilfred Stalker ..."
• Seram White-eye
Zosterops stalkeri OGILVIE-GRANT 1910 (20th of April 1910,
here): "... collected by the late W. Stalker: — ..." [...] "... procured by Mr. Stalker", note that this was published only a few weeks later by the same Author, in the same journal, only a few pages after the former (that is, in the bound volume, of course); all in all, talking (strongly) in favour of it being aimed at the same Mr. W. (Wilfred) Stalker.
• Seram Mountain Pigeon
Gymnophaps stalkeri OGILVIE-GRANT 1911 (
here), as "
Columba stalkeri": "... collected by the late Mr.
Wilfred Stalker ..."
And also:
• the debated, no longer valid, Figbird (possibly simply a subspecific hybrid) "
Sphecotheres stalkeri" INGRAM 1908 (
here) a k a Ingram's Figbird (from Queensland, Australia); no dedication, nor any explanation.
Either way; the former three were clearly dedicated to a "Wilfred Stalker", who apparently did drown/died in the very beginning of 1910.
Also see:
Ogilvie-Grant, W.R. 1915. Report on the birds collected by the British Ornithologists’ Union Expedition and the Wollaston Expedition in Dutch New Guinea.
The Ibis Jubilee Supplement 2: i–xx, 1–336. (
here)
The other ones, described by Mathews, today considered either subspecies or invalid names (alt. synonyms), I gladly leave to anyone else. LeCroy's papers (see #21) does talk in favour of Wilfred, maybe Mathews only knew him as "Bill", and took it for granted his name ought to be William? Just a guess ...
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Note that Mr Stalker is called "William Stalker (1879-1910)", in
The Eponym Dictionary of Mammals (2009),
here, but he's "Wilfred Stalker (1879-1910)", in
The Eponym Dictionary of Birds (2014),
here ...
!? The usually reliable J. C. Greenway Jr. (1973), mentions him (four times) as "William Stalker" (
here),
versus "Wilfred Stalker (1879–1910)", in Jobling's
Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names (Helm, 2010) ...
I don't know what to believe.
To me this looks like a case when some crucial data suddenly appeared, in about 2010, (but what that would be is unknown to me). Maybe someone had found a Record of Birth, or a similar document. Possibly someone, somewhere, had dug into this topic (and this guy), and had written a Paper/Thesis ... ? Or did everyone simply followed what (the usually very trustworthy) Mary LeCroy wrote (without questions asked)?
Who knows?
Björn
PS. Maybe the safest way is to do like they did in the
Avicultural Magazine (2011),
here, where they wrote his name as: "Wilfred (or William) Stalker" ...
I´m sure glad he's not one of "my guys". None of those birds have an eponymical Common/vernacular name in Swedish.
stalkeri ... over and out (on my part)!
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