William John Swainson

William Swainson ( born October 8, 1789 in St Mary Newington, London, † December 6, 1855 in New Zealand ) was an English ornithologist and artist.

Life and work

Swainson developed an interest in natural history studies by the mussel and insect collections of his father. He was drafted into the army and sent to Sicily, but he had to resign due to health problems.

Swainson traveled through Brazil from 1816 to 1818. He brought on his return to England a collection of over 20,000 insects, 1,200 plants of 120 fish drawings and about 760 birds. His friend William Elford Leach encouraged to experiment with lithography him for his book Zoological Illustrations ( 1820-23 ).

When Leach was forced to resign due to illness from the British Museum, located Swainson applied to replace him, but the post went to John George Children. Swainson continued to write, the most influential work was the second volume of Fauna Boreali - Americana (1831 ), which he wrote with John Richardson. He also produced a second series of Zoological Illustrations ( 1832-33 ), three volumes of Jardines Naturalist's Library, and 11 volumes of Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopedia.

In 1841 he emigrated to New Zealand to become a farmer, but he failed due to competition with local Māori. In 1851 he sailed to Sydney and took over the post of botanical expert, the Victorian government. However, this failed because of his lack of botanical knowledge also fails. He returned in 1855 returned to New Zealand where he died.

Swainson's friend John James Audubon named the Swainson's Warbler in his honor, Charles Lucien Bonaparte named the Swainson's Hawk (Buteo swainsoni ) after him, and the English name of Dwarf Thrush ( Catharus ustulatus ( Nuttall, 1840) ) is " Swainson's Thrush". The Swainson's toucan ( Ramphastos swainsonii ) and the Swainsonsperling (Passer swainsonii ) also bear his name.