And here's maybe the most important one, of the names in Jobling's short List, as it's the only one concerning a (today still) valid, full species ...
noguchii as in:
• the Okinawa Woodpecker (
Sapheopipo)
Dendrocopos noguchii SEEBOHM 1887 (
here), as "
Picus noguchii" (with a nice Plate on the following page):
This entirely new species, which I have named according to Mr. Pryer's instructions, ...
The holotype itself (a juvenile male specimen) is today kept in the (
British)
Natural History Museum; (
here) where it's listed as: "Collected by H. Pryer and presented by H. Seebohm"
Jobling's MS (November 2020):
T. Noguchi (fl. 1887) collector ...
Nobuhiko Osawa
in litt. (March 2021):
T. Noguchi" ?
After having searched for him (or she?), there are two possibilities.
But if "T. Noguchi" truly is the person we ought to look for there are only one, and who knows who he (she) was!?
Many people in Japan point at one certain Mr Noguchi, but his name has always been interpreted and translated as Gennosuke Noguchi [野口源之助], thus not "T. Noguchi".
Dr Masaru Kato [加藤克] at the Hokkaido University has written an essay about the "Origin of the name of Okinawa Woodpecker" (2006, 24 pages, all in Japanese), but it gives us no definite answer. Try it in Google translation? [See link below]:
https://eprints.lib.hokudai.ac.jp/dspace/bitstream/2115/32884/1/6_p1-24.pdf
And that I did!
I simply inserted Dr Kato's whole piece (all in Japanese), part by part, into
Google Translate and altered it all into English, and even if a lot of it turned out as pure nonsense (large chunks of it makes absolutely no sense at all), but, all in all, one can get a grip on the larger picture, and from that Paper alone, I think I might be a bit more daring than my dear Japanese friend, maybe even somewhat arbitrary, in suggesting that this Eponym actually does honour the following guy.
At least I think it's fair to say:
... that it
probably, or even
most likely (though
not with a 100% certainty
!) does commemorate the local Japanese interpreter and translator
Gennosuke Noguchi [野口源之助]
(1844–fl.1886/7), whose Death year seems all unknown (at least to Dr Kato, in the paper above, from 2008).
This guy was born 2nd of May 1844, at "54, Ouramachi", in Nagasaki (as well as in Nagasaki Prefecture), on Kyushu (
Kyūshū), as the second Son to Mr (
Ronō alt.
Ronô, or Ronó/Ronou) Komori, ... and that's just about all we seem to know about his Childhood, and even less, simply nothing about his Youth, until he suddenly turns up, as an adult, in Yokohama, in April 1868.
[Apparently, his Birth name was "
Shinichi Mina", but this was abandoned by, and replaced with;
Gennosuke Noguchi, way before he started his professional career (and as such started to leave marks in various different, bureaucratic documents), and even more important, way, way before he had any contacts what-so-ever with Westerns naturalist (and as such this very first "birth name" is "all irrelevant", at least in a Natural History context/view, according to Mr Osawa. Also note, that Gennosuke Noguchi's Birth Place, "Ouramachi" is an exact Place/location which today is lost, no longer possible to trace, from contemporary records, into an exact location in/on any of today's maps of Nagasaki]
Either way, this was a guy who (as an adult) knew several 'Western' naturalists, incl. for example/s; the two Ornithologist and Naturalists;
Captain T. W. Blakiston [Thomas Wright Blakiston (1832–1892)
1], and H. Pryer [Henry (James Stovin) Pryer (1850–1888)
2], both famous and well-known for their ornithological work in Japan, as well as acclaimed Entomologists like; H. W. Bates [Henry Walter Bates (1825–1892)
3] and G. Lewis [George Lewis (1839–1926)
4].
Though I wouldn't say that Seebohm's naming of this Woodpecker (clearly on request by Pryer himself)
necessarily was a commemoration for Mr Noguchi as a collector, (
i.e. in the sole/main capacity as a collector of Bird specimens, at least not of this particular Bird/type, even if it sure could have been, or not), but I would think it was (most likely) just an honour given to a guy, who made the Japanese ways, and Life in Japan, in general, a bit easier for quite a few of those 'Western' naturalist (as well as their collecting of Natural History specimens, of course), while they were visiting 'his' country Japan. He certainly made things far, far easier for Mr Pryer, who seems to have collected the very Type of this Woodpecker himself (see BNHM's type collection, link above).
This guy (most likely "our guy"); Gennosuke Noguchi, worked mainly as translator and interpreter, but also as a Teacher (in English), Jurist/Legal official, surveyor, negotiator, a (minor) "shogunate bureaucrat", civil servant/official (administrator), possibly also as a Guide (and Legal adviser), at times (from 1868 until 1880) he worked for the Hokkaidō Development Commission (開拓使,
Kaitakushi – where he also tried/learned new, modern 'Western' skills like Photography). The same Mr Noguchi equally served during some Waterway surveys, and was as well in service during (and observing) the spectacular
Transit of Venus in 1882, and he's as well known to have helped various Naturalist with different customs clearances (of whatever imported/exported goods, and specimens, one might assume), also with subscriptions to English newspapers, and requests for advertisements in ditto newspapers, mediating between local Authorities and various 'foreigners and foreign companies', etc., etc. ...
Today, I assume, we would call him; a local 'helper' (for hire), an obtainable "helping hand', or even (simply) a 'fixer'! THE guy who made things actually possible, feasible, or just doable.
Thus, and thereby, I guess it ought to be the same guy (in Japanese
Wikipedia),
here, where he's equally claimed to have worked, as a Professor, at the Tokyo
School of Agriculture and Forestry, 1886-1887 [a claim, not mentioned by Dr Kato, at least not in my (somewhat freaky)
Google translate version of his Paper].
Though, after that ... he simply vanished (the latter also confirmed by my friend Mr. Osawa, who told me he's: "gone after 1887", and he also explained that Noguchi was an "English Professor", in that certain School/University in Tokyo; ... "nothing else", "no other Professor").
Either way, also (maybe) noteworthy; in the same Paper Dr Kato also speculates that the two Ground beetles (both in
Coleoptera,
Carabidae) described in 1873, by H. W. Bates [
i.e. the same Henry Walter Bates, as above]; (
Chlaenius)
Lithochlaenius noguchii BATES 1873 (
here), as "
C. [
Callistomimus]
Noguchii", as well as today's
Pterostichus noguchii BATES 1873 (on pp.286–287), as "
Pt. [
Pterostichus] (
Lyperus)
Noguchii", probably (equally; most likely) also named after the same Noguchi (even if in the former case, clearly dedicated to "Noguchi", in the out-spoken capacity as a collector):
Named after Noguchi, Mr. Lewis's meritorious Japanese collector
If he equally ever collected any Birds seems all unknown. But one might suspect that helping out collecting beetles would be a task much easier done (compared to catching/shooting Birds) for any 'civilian' by-stander, whenever time allowed ... who knows?
However, that's all.
Gennosuke Noguchi. Photo taken in Tokyo 1872
And, as always; don't hesitate to prove otherwise, alt. me (or us) simply just wrong.
In any case: Enjoy!
Björn
PS. He's not to confuse with the Japanese collector 野口貞美 ("Noguchi Sadami" – translation confirmed by Mr Osawa), alt. in Western order: "Sadami Noguchi", who collected for Momyiama, in Micronesia (as of here, but that's far later, in the late 1930's).
1 Commemorated in (for example): Blakiston's Fish-Owl Ketupa/Bubo blakistoni SEEBOHM 1884 (OD here).
2Commemorated in (for example): Marsh Grassbird Megalurus/Locustella pryeri SEEBOHM 1884 (OD, in the same Ibis paper, two pages earlier).
3Commemorated in the (far less conspicuous, and far less attracted) subspecies of the Cinnamon-browed Melidectes Melidectes ochromelas batesi (Richard Bowdler) SHARPE 1886 (here), as "Melirrhophetes batesi" (even if not a Japanese bird, but from New Guinea), without any dedication, nor explanation, by the text (surrounding the very short description) itself it's easy to believe that it ought to have been a "forbesi"!?!), but see Gould and Sharpe's The birds of New Guinea and the adjacent Papuan islands: including many new species recently discovered in Australia, vol. III (here); for the same "Bates's Honey-eater", ... signed "[R. B. S.]"
4Mr Lewis himself had to settle, and be content, with Beetles (in Coleoptera, Insecta) like, for example, "Niposoma lewisi" (Marseul, 1873)