Osbert Salvin

Osbert Salvin ( born February 25, 1835 in Elmshurst, Finchley, Middlesex, † June 1, 1898 in Hawksfold in Fernhurst, Sussex ) was an English naturalist.

Salvin is best known as co-editor and co-author of Biology Centrali - Americana (1879-1915), along with Frederick DuCane Godman, known. It is a 63- volume encyclopedia of fauna and flora of Central America.

Salvin was the second son of Anthony Salvin, an architect from Hawksfold, Sussex. He attended in Westminster and at Trinity Hall, Cambridge; He received his diploma in 1857. Shortly after, he accompanied a second cousin, Henry Baker Tristram, on an expedition to Tunisia and to the eastern Algeria. Their results were published in 1859 and 1860 at The Ibis. In the autumn of 1857 he made ​​his first of many trips to Guatemala and came back with Godman 1861. During this trip the Biologia Centrali - Americana was planned.

In 1871 he became editor of The Ibis. He was appointed to the Strickland Curatorship from the University of Cambridge and prepared a Catalogue of the Strickland Collection. He was a founding member of the British Ornithologists ' Union. He created the volumes on hummingbirds and petrels in the Catalogue of Birds in the British Museum. One of his last works was the completion of Lord Lilfords Coloured Figures of British Birds in 1897.

Salvin was a member of the Royal Society, the Linnean Society of London, the Zoological Society of London and the Royal Entomological Society of London, and at his death, also Secretary of the British Ornithologists ' Union.

The Godman - Salvin Medal, a prestigious award of the British Ornithologists ' Union, was named after him.