Jean Théodore Delacour

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Jean Théodore Delacour
Delacour in 1957, photographed by Alexander Wetmore
Born(1890-09-26)September 26, 1890
DiedNovember 5, 1985(1985-11-05) (aged 95)

Jean Théodore Delacour (26 September 1890 – 5 November 1985) was a French

ornithologist and aviculturist. He later became American. He was renowned for not only discovering but also rearing some of the rarest birds in the world. He established very successful aviaries twice in his life, stocked with birds from around the world, including those that he obtained on expeditions to Southeast Asia, Africa and South America. His first aviary in Villers-Bretonneux was destroyed in World War One. The second one that he established at Clères was destroyed in World War Two. He moved to the United States of America where he worked on avian systematics and was one of the founders of the International Committee for Bird Protection[1] (later BirdLife International). One of the birds he discovered was the imperial pheasant, later identified as a hybrid between the Vietnamese pheasant and the silver pheasant
.

Life and work

Delacour was born in

Université Lille Nord de France. He maintained 1345 birds of 344 species in 1916.[2]

Delacour served in the

During

Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle in 1967. He was a co-founder of the International Council for Bird Preservation, serving as its president from 1938 to 1958. Delacour spent his winters in the United States, mainly in Los Angeles where he served from 1952 to 1960 as the director of the County Museum of History, Science and Art. Spending all his time and resources on his bird collections, he never married. He had trained as an operatic singer and was particularly fond of Moussorgsky's compositions.[15]

Delacour was reliant on a wheelchair in later life. He lived with his mother who died in 1954 at the age of 94. In his autobiography "The Living Air" he wrote that humans would eventually annihilate all life on earth.[4][16][17][18][19][20]

Delacour is commemorated in the scientific name of a species of Southeast Asian snake, Plagiopholis delacouri.[21]

Bibliography

Apart from many papers in the ornithological literature, particularly in the Avicultural Magazine, Delacour wrote or cowrote several books including:

  • 1931 – Les Oiseaux de L'Indochine Française (4 vols)
  • 1945 – Birds of the Philippines (with Ernst Mayr)
  • 1947 – Birds of Malaysia
  • 1951 – The Pheasants of the World
  • 1951–64 – The Waterfowl of the World (4 vols) - with paintings by Sir Peter Scott
  • 1959 – Wild Pigeons and Doves
  • 1966 – The Living Air: The Memoirs of an Ornithologist (autobiography)
  • 1973 – Curassows and Related Birds (with Dean Amadon)

References

  1. ^ "BirdLife International". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 20 September 2020.
  2. ^ Delacour, J. (1917). "Notes on my birds at Villers-Bretonneux in 1916". Avicultural Magazine. 3. 8 (3): 69–73.
  3. .
  4. ^ a b Nowak, Eugeniusz (2002). "Erinnerungen an Ornithologen, die ich kannte (4. Teil)" (PDF). Der Ornithologische Beobachter (in German). 99: 49–70. Archived from the original (PDF) on 22 February 2018. Retrieved 22 February 2018.
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  10. ^ a b Delacour, Jean (1941). "The end of Cleres". Avicultural Magazine. 6: 81–84.
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  15. ^ Ezra, Ruth (1988). "Jean Theodore Delacour 1890-1985". Avicultural Magazine. 94: 1–2.
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  19. ^ Lindholm, J. H. (1988). "Jean Delacour and the Avicultural Magazine". Avic. Mag. 94: 68–69.
  20. ^ Delacour, J. (1969). "The progress of aviculture during the last three-quarters of a century". Avicultural Magazine. 75: 224–225.
  21. . ("Delacour", p. 68).

External links