• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Miss Harris's Black-headed Mountain-Finch (1 Viewer)

Given the lack of an OD I thought I would look into this a bit further. Gould's involvement is crucial. My statement that Audrey Harris would be the only Audrey for miles is incorrect. Audrey Cantlie was an aspiring anthropologist and was the daughter of Sir Keith Cantlie the famous Indian entomologist and Commissioner of Assam. Audrey was born in Assam and raised in Shillong. Her husband (then fiancée) T.T.S. Hayley was Gould's under secretary in Assam in 1938 and thus honouring Audrey Cantlie was far more sensible than Audrey Harris. After the war Hayley became a leading psychoanalyst and Audrey taught anthropology at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London for more than 40 years. Note Audrey Cantlie did not take her husband's name after marriage.

Audrey Cantlie (1923-1993)
Birth18 Apr 1923 Shillong, Meghalaya, India
Marriage7 Sept 1946 Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Scotland
Death23 Jun 1993
SpouseThomas Theodore Steiger Hayley (1913-1993)
 
Might be worth to read the book "Nazis in Tibet: Das Rätsel um die SMS-Expedition Ernst Schäfer" . As I understood a Lord Linlithgow and Sir Barry Domvile played important rules to get the allowance at least till Sikkim.
 
Nothing in "Nazis in Tibet" I can see - Gould is mentioned 44 times but no Audrey. Nothing in Gould's autobiography either. Admiral Barry Domvile's history is interesting.
 
Well, Paul, what can I say ... if Miss Audrey Harris isn't the alleged dedicatee, nor the obvious candidate (as it earlier seemed), and if there's another possible/plausible dedicatee in the vicinity, active in the same Era ... your guess is as good as mine!

My post #1 was simply trusting/following what was earlier told in the dear old HBW Alive Key (the very basis for that certain claim is all unknown to me). I believed I was just adding a missing Death year.

Neither she, nor this bird, are included in my MS, thus I haven't checked it (nor the dedicatee herself) in any serious depth (basically, not deeper than what's been shown in this thread).

However, I don't think I can reach much further in this topic.

Good luck finding the truth!

Björn

PS. Though, I cannot help wondering where Jobling found her originally ... :unsure:

PPS. This far, until proven otherwise, I'd keep my bet on Miss Harris.
 
Last edited:
Very interesting thread. Slightly confusing. I can find a book that mentions Audrey Harris in the Himilayas with Gould and Col. FM Bailey a diplomat/spy/ naturalist and Gould assistant Freddie Spencer Chapman military/spy/botanist/mountaineer.
Page 276 of Eastern Visas mentions this time and place..
Chapman states while Audrey Harris was there "Tilman had called in to make arrangements for visiting the Zemu Gap from the west,"
Full text of "Helvellyn to Himalaya" .
Freddie Spencer Chapman - Wikipedia .
In a 2010 article about Shaeffer's bird collections it says "Stresemann described the subspecies Leucosticte brandti audreyana based on the individuals from Sikkim in 1939 (Ornith. Monatsber. 47, 6: 177–179). Holotype: ZMB 39.833, male. Loc.: Yabuk at Zemu Glacier. Date: 1. November 1938. Coll.: E. Schfer, No 1465. It is likely Baily, Gould, Chapman and Harris helped Schaefer get permission to go to Zemu Glacier.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03068376708731997?journalCode=raaf19 .
Schaeffer explored with Dolan and spent time in Philadelphia making him seem more trustworthy?
An article mentioning Schaefer and Bailey: http://himalaya.socanth.cam.ac.uk/collections/journals/ret/pdf/ret_42_02.pdf .
 
Last edited:
mb1848 said:
...
In a 2010 article about Shaeffer's bird collections it says "Stresemann described the subspecies Leucosticte brandti audreyana based on the individuals from Sikkim in 1939 (Ornith. Monatsber. 47, 6: 177–179). Holotype: ZMB 39.833, male. Loc.: Yabuk at Zemu Glacier. Date: 1. November 1938. Coll.: E. Schfer, No 1465. ...
Click to expand...
Mark, the full Title/s (and the correct spelling of the collector's name) is (note, single-f):

• The bird collections in the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin resulting from Ernst Schäfer’s three expeditions to Tibet and Sikkim, by Michael Abs, Pascal Eckhoff, Jürgen Fiebig & Sylke Frahnert (2010). Zoosystematics and Evolution 86 (1): pp. 49–80. DOI 10.1002/zoos.200900014.

• Erratum – The bird collections in the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin resulting from Ernst Schäfer’s three expeditions to Tibet and Sikkim. Zoosystematics and Evolution 86 (1): 49-80. DOI 10.1002/ zoos.200900014, by the same Authors (2010), in Zoosystematics and Evolution 86 (2): pp. 351–354. DOI 10.1002/zoos.201000018.

Also see the Paper:
• Ernst Schäfer’s comprehensive historical bird collection from Sikkim and Tibet at the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin, by Frahnert, Eckhoff & Fiebig (2012), in Indian Birds 7 (6): pp. 160–161, here.

Stay safe!

Björn
 
Last edited:
Thanks Björn. Audrey Harris says in her book that there were few Europeans in Sikkim when she was there and that Gould and her Aunt Mary Scott a missionary were at the top of the European social structure. The first paper you cite says that Ernst collected throughout the whole year at Gangtok Sikkim. And that was home base for Aunt Mary and her work. Perhaps Audrey Harris heled Ernst stay with Aunt Mary or at least stay in the town with the help of the Aunt? I spelled Mr. Bailey's name two different ways also.
 
Last edited:
A small aside "Aunt Mary" was not an actual aunt to Audrey - she was in fact the Honorable Mary Harriet Hepburne-Scott (1877-1964) daughter of the 8th Lord Polwarth and of pure Plantagenet blood. It was she who is credited, pretty much single-handedly, in making the state of Sikkim a Christian one. She would be a saint if she wasn't a Presbyterian. She simply offered a home for the wayward Ms Harris during her stay in Sikkim.
 
Has anyone checked Ornithologische Ergebnisse zweier Forschungsreisen nach Tibet published as Sonderheft in Journal für Ornithologie what Ernst Schäfer wrote there? Maybe he mentioned there an Audrey?
 
Last edited:
Warning! This thread is more than 2 years ago old.
It's likely that no further discussion is required, in which case we recommend starting a new thread. If however you feel your response is required you can still do so.

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 2 (members: 0, guests: 2)
Back
Top