Bernier in Bernier’s Birds (1 Viewer)

[Björn Bergenholtz]

According to various sources the four* Birds …:

1. Bernier’s Vanga Oriolia bernieri SAINT-HILAIRE 1838

2. Long-billed Bernieria (Oxylabes/Phyllastrephus) Bernieria madagascariensis GMELIN 1789 (Bernieria PUCHERAN 1855)

3. Bernier's Teal Anas bernieri HARTLAUB 1860

4. Madagascar Ibis Threskiornis (aethiopicus ?) bernieri BONAPARTE 1855

… commemorates either:

The Chevalier (=Title) J. A. Bernier (alive 1831-1834)
or Chevalier Alphonse Charles Joseph Bernier (1802-1858)**

Both listed as: French Naval surgeon, naturalist, botanist and collector (on Madagascar 1831-1834).

Is this the same person? Or does anyone know anything else?

There might be another Monsieur Bernier to consider!? According to Clifford, H. T. & P. D. Bostock. 2007. Etymological Dictionary of Grasses. Spinger-Verlag Berlin …there is also a: "Pierre François Bernier (1779-1803)" who collected on Madagascar, commemorated in an (for me unknown) Grass specie named bernieri!?
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*Not including the valid subspecie Malurus lamberti bernieri OGILVIE-GRANT 1909 that is namned after "Bernier Island, Carnarvon, W. Australia".

** also commemorated in: Bernier's Striped Snake Dromicodryas bernieri DUMÉRIL & BIBRON 1854

 

[nartreb]

For the first row, I assume you don't mean that he died at the age of three. That would make it very hard to aquire the title of Chevalier (knight).

Bernier is another rather common name, but in this case it's also a title. Our naturalist was (or claimed to be) the Lord (or Knight) of Bernier.
His full name, written in the usual English order, was Charles Joseph Rosalie Alphonse, Chevalier de Bernier, according to this:
http://gw.geneanet.org/bebe9?lang=en&p=charles+joseph+rosalie+alphonse+dit+sieur&n=bernier

The same name might be written Alphonse, Charles Joseph de Bernier or Joseph Alphonse Bernier.

It's very unlikely that two naval surgeons with the same name were on Madagascar at the same time.

(I wonder if this was an ancestor: a doctor who travelled to the Mogul Empire in the 1660s: http://books.google.com/books?id=rjhCAAAAcAAJ&printsec=frontcover&hl=fr#v=onepage&q&f=false)

 

[Björn Bergenholtz]

For now, let´s concentrate on Bernier’s Vanga Oriolia bernieri SAINT-HILAIRE 1838 …

Saint-Hilaire, I G. 1838. … une Notice sur trois genres d’Oiseaux de Madagascar. Revue Zoologique, par La Société Cuvierienne 1 (4): 49-51

In its type description (above) the French ornithologist Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire didn´t reveal why he named it "Bernieri"! But he published a longer version of the same Notice later on the same year, where he mentions "M. Bernier" (M = Monseiur) Mr. Bernier at least four times!

Saint-Hilaire, I G. 1838. Notice sur trois nouveaux genres d’oiseaux de Madagascar. Annales des Sciences Naturelles comprenant la Zoologie, la Botanique, l’Anatomie et la Physiologie comparées des deux Règnes, et l’Histoire des corps Organisés Fossiles – Zoologie (Serie II) 9: 186-190. This second article starts with:

"Les trois oiseaux qui font le sujet de cette notice, dit M. Isidore Geoffroy, étaient compris dans une riche collection envoyée de Madagascar au Muséum dʼhistorie naturelle, par M. Bernier, officer de santé de la marine, don’t jʼai déjà eu plusieurs occasions de signaler le zèle éclairé pour lʼhistoire naturelle."

And a few lines, further down the same page:

"Tous trois nʼont été envoyés que par M. Bernier, et ils étaient dans la précieuse collection dont ils faisaient partie, les seuls dont les noms de pays ne fussent pas indiqués, et presque les seuls aussi qui ne fussent représentés que par un individu."

"… les trois oiseaux dont la découverte est due à M. Bernier."

And on page 188, the type description itself:

"Une seule est connue, lʼORIOLIE DE BERNIER, Oriolia Bernieri, don’t les caractères sont les suivans : …"

A year later, 1839, Saint-Hilaire published the same text again(!), almost identical, but with a few small additions: Saint-Hilaire, I G. 1839. NOTICE sur trois nouveaux genres d’Oiseaux de Madagascar (PHILÉPITTE, ORIOLE et MÉSITE). Magasin de Zoologie d'Anatomie comparée et de Palæontologie; … : 1-16 (+ Plate 4). (Attached)

Here he adds a few lines to the text in the typ-description (page 10):

"Lʼespèce que jʼai sous les yeux et que je nomme du nom du voyageur auquel la découverte en est due, lʼOriolie de Bernier, Oriolia Bernieri, a la tête, le cou, le corps remarquables par une multitude de raies transversales noires sur un fond roussâtre, et la queue feuille morte."

Anyone feel like having a go at translating those five quotes? If so, as accurate as possible, as I would like to quote them myself (in Swedish) in my entry for Bernier.

And please don´t hesitate to remark on any errors I might have done transcribing those sentences.

Is there anything else added or mentioned that might clarify who he was? Or maybe any other possible clues of where to look for him?

 

[JustinJansen]

Alphonse Charles Joseph Bernier (1802; 1858), one of his children Julien Bernier (1843; 1903) became later conservator at Musée de Nouméa, New Caledonia. Medical doctor and naval surgeon. Became director at the Botanical Gardens at Réunion, with a special interest in plants. Bernier collected extensively in Madagascar, sometimes with Louis H. Boivin. Amongst the collected items are plants, insects, coleopteran, Lepidoptera, lemurs and birds, they can be found within various institutions. He visited Madagascar by 1822-1836, 1840 & 1848.
Sources: 1). O'Reilly P. & Lébédeff J. 1980. Calédoniens: répertoire bio-bibliographique de la Nouvelle-Calédonie; 2). Dorr L.J. 1997. Plant collectors in Madagascar and the Comoro Islands. Washington; 3). Wickens G.E. &Lowe P. 2008. The Baobabs: Pachycauls of Africa, Madagascar and Australia

 

[dalat]

Can't add anything to the matter in question, but I'll have a go at the French (any native speaker coming along may perhaps check my translations).

"Les trois oiseaux qui font le sujet de cette notice, dit M. Isidore Geoffroy, étaient compris dans une riche collection envoyée de Madagascar au Muséum dʼhistorie naturelle, par M. Bernier, officer de santé de la marine, don’t jʼai déjà eu plusieurs occasions de signaler le zèle éclairé pour lʼhistoire naturelle."

The three birds that are the topic of this notice, said Mr. Isidore Geoffrey, were part of a rich collection sent from Madagascar to the Museum of Natural History by Mr. Bernier, a Marine Health Officer, of whose enlighted enthusiasm for natural history I already could report at several occasions.

"Tous trois nʼont été envoyés que par M. Bernier, et ils étaient dans la précieuse collection dont ils faisaient partie, les seuls dont les noms de pays ne fussent pas indiqués, et presque les seuls aussi qui ne fussent représentés que par un individu."

All three were sent only by Mr. Bernier, and in the precious collection they were part of, they were the only ones for which the name of the country was not indicated, and almost the only ones that were represented by only one individual.

"… les trois oiseaux dont la découverte est due à M. Bernier."

... the three birds whose discovery is due to Mr. Bernier

"Lʼespèce que jʼai sous les yeux et que je nomme du nom du voyageur auquel la découverte en est due, lʼOriolie de Bernier, Oriolia Bernieri, a la tête, le cou, le corps remarquables par une multitude de raies transversales noires sur un fond roussâtre, et la queue feuille morte."

The species that I have under my eyes and that I name after the traveller who discovered it, Bernier's Oriol, Oriolia Bernieri, has the head, neck and body marked with multiple transversal black streaks on reddish background, and the tail like a dead leaf.

Ps: I had a look at the original article, and added in bold some corrections to the transcription

 

[Björn Bergenholtz]

Just to be on the safe side ...

Thank you, Justin ...

Alphonse Charles Joseph Bernier (1802; 1858), one of his children Julien Bernier (1843; 1903) became later conservator at Musée de Nouméa, New Caledonia. Medical doctor and naval surgeon. Became director at the Botanical Gardens at Réunion, with a special interest in plants. Bernier collected extensively in Madagascar, sometimes with Louis H. Boivin. Amongst the collected items are plants, insects, coleopteran, Lepidoptera, lemurs and birds, they can be found within various institutions. He visited Madagascar by 1822-1836, 1840 & 1848.
Sources: 1). O'Reilly P. & Lébédeff J. 1980. Calédoniens: répertoire bio-bibliographique de la Nouvelle-Calédonie; 2). Dorr L.J. 1997. Plant collectors in Madagascar and the Comoro Islands. Washington; 3). Wickens G.E. &Lowe P. 2008. The Baobabs: Pachycauls of Africa, Madagascar and Australia

I have to ask, just to be on the safe side, my English is a bit awkward; You do mean that "Alphonse Charles Joseph Bernier (1802; 1858)" ... was the "... Medical doctor and naval surgeon. Became director at the Botanical Gardens at Réunion, with a special interest in plants. Bernier collected ..." and so on, or ... ?

"Julien Bernier" was just a complement, an additional fact ? Or has he, as well, anything to do with this bird!?

 

[JustinJansen]

Thank you, Justin ...


I have to ask, just to be on the safe side, my English is a bit awkward; You do mean that "Alphonse Charles Joseph Bernier (1802; 1858)" ... was the "... Medical doctor and naval surgeon. Became director at the Botanical Gardens at Réunion, with a special interest in plants. Bernier collected ..." and so on, or ... ?

"Julien Bernier" was just a complement, an additional fact ? Or has he, as well, anything to do with this bird!?

Indeed Alphonse was the medical doctor etc etc.
Julien Bernier is just a additional fact.

 

[Björn Bergenholtz]

Well spotted!

Florian,
thanks a lot for this first translation! Great work!

Ps: I had a look at the original article, and added in bold some corrections to the transcription

And thank you for pointing out my awkwardly, careless errors!

I will edit them in blue imediately!

 

[nartreb]

Translation is always an imprecise art, but I'll quibble with that first quote. (I've underlined the parts where the meaning is a bit different. The differences seem clear to me in English, but may vanish again in Swedish, I don't know.)

"Les trois oiseaux qui font le sujet de cette notice, dit M. Isidore Geoffroy, étaient compris dans une riche collection envoyée de Madagascar au Muséum dʼhistorie naturelle, par M. Bernier, officer de santé de la marine, don’t jʼai déjà eu plusieurs occasions de signaler le zèle éclairé pour lʼhistoire naturelle."

The three birds which are the subject of this bulletin, says Mr. Isidore Geoffroy, were included in a rich collection sent from Madagascar to the Museum of natural history, by Mr. Bernier, a health officer in the navy, whose enlightened zeal for natural history I've reported on several previous occasions.

(That last phrase is literally "whose ... zeal... I've had several previous opportunities to report", but dalat and I both chose a simpler, more modernly idiomatic construction for the translation.)

 

[nartreb]

In the PDF, between the quote about Bernier's enlightened zeal and the quote about all three (birds being described in the current paper) having been sent only by Bernier, is mention of three previously-described animals: a tenuirostrous passerine (Falculie) and two carnassial mammals (Ericule and Galidie); these three then-new species were sent by Bernier and also, at almost the same time, by somebody named Goudot. "He {Bernier} thus contributed to our learning of these three new types of organisms."

It's not quite explicit, but it seems fairly clear that Bernier shipped a large collection around 1835, and St-Hilaire used it (and other material available to him, such as the collection from Goudot) to write a series of papers in the ensuing years, saving the hardest species for last: the ones with no indicated country of origin and with only a single specimen provided, which are the ones described in this PDF.

There are footnotes with references to the mentioned descriptions.

 

[Björn Bergenholtz]

Thanks a lot for your help, "nartreb"!

It helps a lot. It will make me able to conclude my entry on Bernier!

... There are footnotes with references to the mentioned descriptions.

And yes, I have loked at those references, but nothing new is added on Monsieur Bernier.

 

[Taphrospilus]

If Généalogie de Charles Joseph Rosalie Alphonse BERNIER is correct we can add an additional name:

Charles Joseph Rosalie Alphonse Bernier Dit Sieur Bernier

Born: 30 October 1802 in Manthelan
Death: 4 January 1858 in Saint-Denis

I did not check his official documents yet.

 

[l_raty]

In the Key, he appears currently as "Charles Joseph Rosalie Alphonse" in the "bernieri" entry, but as "Alphonse Charles Joseph" in the "Bernieria" entry.

Birth : here (cote 6NUM8/143/010), 358/455, 29 Brumaire XI = 20 Nov 1802 in Manthelan (Indre-et-Loire).
Death: here, 6/581, 4 Jan 1858 in Saint-Denis (Réunion).

"Charles Joseph Rosalie Alphonse" seems correct. (The birth record is a bit messy and looks as if the last given name "Alphonse" had been omitted at first -- in the record itself, this name is written very tightly and almost collides with the next word of the form ("né"), suggesting the writer did not foresee its addition when he wrote "Charles Joseph Rosalie"; in the margin, "Alphonse" is inserted above the dash that separates "Rosalie" from "Bernier", making the sequence of the names there a bit ambiguous (it could arguably also be read "Charles Joseph Alphonse Rosalie Bernier"). The death record gives "Charles Joseph Rosalie Alphonse" unambiguously.)

A bit oddly, the death record claims a birth on 21 Nov, instead of 20 Nov 1802.

 

[James Jobling]

Mea culpa. Have still to get my land-legs after a cruise vacation, and have a lot to catch up on.