Monsieur Le Dart's Marsh Tit (1 Viewer)

[Björn Bergenholtz]

Here's a guy, and bird, that I just happened to find, while looking for others ...

darti as in:
• in the invalid "Parus palustris darti"* H. JOUARD 1929, (here, on p.206), signed "22 décembre 1928":

[...]
Les oiseaux du Calvados et, surtout, de la Loire-Inférieure et de la Vendée marquent, eux, nettement une nouvelle différenciation. Il y a certainement lieu de distinguer une race bretonne de Parus palustris constituant la forme occidentale extrême, pour le continent, de l’espèce ; j’ai proposé pour elle (3) le nom de

Parus palustris darti subsp. nov.​

en témoignage de haute estime pour M. LE DART dont le séries de peaux, scientifiquement conques et réalisées, ont tant contribué à permettre ces recherches.
[...]
_________________________
[...]
3. Voir Bulletin de la Société zoologique de France, 1929, no 3, p. 245-246 [= here:]

Nommé en l’honneur de M. Le Dart, de Troismonts (Calvados).

In the dear old HBW (no longer-Alive) Key this eponym was explained as:

darti
R. Le Dart (fl. 1918) French ornithologist, collector

But I now think we can expand it into: M. [Monsieur] Raoul Le Dart (born 1875) ...

For more info on his results, and efforts, as a collector, and the "Le Collection dite Le Dart", see: here, here, here or here (all in French, and as such a bit beyond my capacity, though note the following text, from/in the latter link):

...

Fin 2016, ce projet, baptisé Naturalia, a commencé à se concrétiser. Des naturalistes du Groupe ornithologique normand (GONm) se sont rendus à l' Hôtel des ventes de Drouot, à Paris (Ouest-France du 2 décembre). Le 12 décembre, ils ont acquis une quarantaine de pièces d'une collection normande d'ornithologie, baptisée Le Dart.

Elle porte le nom de l'ancien propriétaire du château de Trois-Monts (au sud-ouest de Caen), l'un des rares ornithologues normands de la fin du XIXe siècle et du début du XXe siècle. À l'époque, les spécialistes des oiseaux tuaient les animaux pour les reconnaître et les identifier, puis les empaillaient.

...

Google Translate: "At the end of 2016, this project, called Naturalia, began to materialize. Naturalists from the Norman Ornithological Group (GONm) went to the Drouot Sales Hall, in Paris (Ouest-France, December 2). On December 12, they acquired around forty pieces from a Norman collection of ornithology, called Le Dart.

It bears the name of the former owner of the Château de Trois-Monts (south-west of Caen), one of the rare Norman ornithologists of the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. Back then, bird scientists would kill animals to recognize and identify them, and then stuff them."

But the most crucial piece would be this one [my blue bolds]: Histoire Naturelle, Poids & Mesures Etain Artcurial (from 2015), Histoire Naturelle, Taxidermie, Collection Raoul Le Dart:

Né à Caen le 15 avril 1875, ce chasseur ornithologiste habite à Trois-Monts (Calvados) ... and onwards (all in French)

[from here]​

Maybe it's possible for BirdForum's strenuous gang of 'tracker dogs' to find his Death?

(That is, for the French section of it, of course)

Either way; enjoy!

Björn

---

*a synonym of today's Marsh Tit ssp. Poecile palustris dresseri (Stejneger, 1886)

 

[Björn Bergenholtz]

And, just for the fun of it ...

Another Auction Sale of quite a few of Raoul Le Dart's Birds (all collected prior to 1947) was apparently done in Paris, on the 18th of May 2016, (here, or/alt. here).

Who would want and buy a stiff Gavia immer ... standing at attention !?


Maybe it was believed to be a Penguin!



/B

 

[Taphrospilus]

One small addition his full name was Raoul Robert Amédée Jules Le Dart according his birth entry here p. 72 of 254. I hope it will open. If not try this way here. I think the same article like in post # 1 here.

It might be worth to ask at Muséum national d'histoire naturelle Paris if the have information where he lived in 1966 here

Une très importante collection d'oiseaux d'Europe et d'Afrique du Nord , acquise à M. Le Dart ;

At least 1955 he lived here

LE DART , R. Château de Bellevue-Longueval, Rainville (Calvados)

But think Ranville is correct.

 

[Björn Bergenholtz]

Also as ditto here , which (to me) looks like some kind of Military/Service record (up until about "1924") ...

One specimen of "his" Marsh Tit is apparently kept at MNHM (here); Date de récolte: "1931-2-10", .... along with several (many!) other specimens: all collected by the same: "Le Dart, Raoul" (here), including an even later; Merlin Falco columbarius collected "1950-12-14" ... presumably taking us (and him) safely into the early 1950's.

Disclaimer: I haven't looked through all of those specimens (nor will I, they're simply too many, at least for my schedule), in numbers – all in all: "1048"!

🙄

 

[PScofield]

Sorry can't add a date of death but can give one piece of trivia:

Jacques Amand EUDES-DESLONGCHAMPS (1794-1867) married Marie Françoise Désirée LE DART who was Raoul's great grand aunt hence Guillaume François Eugène EUDES-DESLONGCHAMPS (1830-1889) was Raoul's 2nd cousin.

I am also suspicious that there is more than one "Raoul Le Dart" in these records. A spectacular art collection belonging to the Le Dart family was sold in 1912 and the Chateau and a huge taxidermy collection and other contents were sold in 1935. At that time an "R Le Dart" moved from Trois-Monts to Ranville (about 45kms) - could this be a son relocating after his father's death? According to the sale catalog, my previous supposition is incorrect but it does say that a Raoul's collecting continued till he "gave" the collection to the MHN in 1943. Could this be because M. Le Dart was not allowed a gun or was it due to something more permanent?

P

 

[l_raty]

In 1958-59, he still appeared in a list as a member of the Société Ornithologique de France (https://books.google.com/books?id=HrJJAAAAYAAJ&q="Le+Dart"), at Chateau de Bellevue-Longueval, 'Rainville', his name preceded by '1921' indicating he had been a member since this year.
In 1921-22, in a similar list (https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/8760758), only one Le Dart was listed, residing at Chateau de Vaugroult, 'Troisemonts' (sic, i.e., Trois-Monts). This suggests only one person was involved, indeed.
He was apparently gone in the 1961-62 list (https://books.google.com/books?id=O7NJAAAAYAAJ&q="1957+lebreton+charles").

I don't see a statement that he gave his collection in 1943 to MNHN in the sale catalogs (part 2: http://catalogue.drouot.com/pdf/109/78763/artcurial.pdf?id=78763, part 3: https://issuu.com/artcurialbpt/docs/3105/4; I can't find part 1). There, the writer merely reports that specimens collected by him, some dating from as late as 1943, are at MNHN. The vast majority of his specimens at MNHN were accessioned in 1965 (https://science.mnhn.fr/all/list?recordedBy=Le Dart, Raoul), and indeed the Muséum reported having acquired a collection from him during this year (Google link in Martin's post #3; full text: https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/55121251; published in 1966, but this was in a report about year 1965). This is presumably when the main 'transfer' happened.

 

[Taphrospilus]

Hie died 5 June 1959 in Ranville



Big thank you to the Archives départementales du Calvados who sent me the information.