Gairdner's Woodpecker Picoides pubescens gairdnerii Audubon, 1839 [Alt. Downy Woodpecker ssp.]
Dr Meredith Gairdner (d.1837) was a naturalist from Edinburgh, Scotland. He left for Canada (1832) employed by the Hudson's Bay Company, and was stationed on the Columbia River (c.2 years). There he studied natural history, collecting materials to prepare a monograph of the vast riparian area. He also witnessed an eruption of Mount St Helens. Unfortunately he contracted tuberculosis when he was sent to treat an outbreak. The disease left him weak and he left for Hawaii, hoping the climate would help, but it proved fatal. He left bequests to help poor Hawaiian children. He wrote Observations During a Voyage from England to Fort Vancouver, on the North-west Coast of America (1834). Audubon (q.v.) wrote '... a specimen of a of a Woodpecker sent from the rom the Columbia river by Dr Meredith Gairdner to Professor Jameson of Edinburgh, , who kindly lentitto me for the purpose of being described... I hope to be able to give a figure of this species at the end of the present work.' A fish was named after him.
