Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index Timeline of ornithology 4th century BC - Aristotle mentions over 170 sorts of birds in his work on animals. He recognises eight principal groups 1st century - Pliny the Elder's Historia Naturalis Book X is devoted to birds. Three groups based on feet characteristics 2nd century - Aelian mentions a number of birds in his work on animals. Birds are listed alphabetically 1478 - De Avibus by Albertus Magnus is printed, which mentions many bird names for the first time 1485 - First dated copy of Ortus sanitatis by Johannes de Cuba 1544 - William Turner prints a commentary of the birds mentioned by Aristotle and Pliny 1555 - Conrad Gesner's Historic Animalium qui est de Auium natura and Pierre Belon's (Bellonius) Histoire de la nature des Oyseaux. Belon lists birds according to a definite system 1573 - Volcher Coiter publishes his first treatise on bird anatomy 1676 - Publication of Francis Willughby's Ornithologia by his collaborator John Ray. This is considered the beginning of scientific ornithology in Europe, revolutionizing ornithological taxonomy by organizing species according to their physical characteristics 1681 - The last Dodo dies on the island of Mauritius 1731-1743 - Mark Catesby publishes his Natural History of Carolina, which contains coloured plates of the birds of that colony, Florida and the Bahamas 1735 - First edition of Carolus Linnaeus' Systema Naturae. The classification of birds follows that of Ray 1741 - Georg Steller studies the birds of the north Pacific on his voyage with Vitus Bering 1743 - George Edwards begins publication of his bird plates 1760 - Mathurin Jacques Brisson's six-volume Ornithologie improves upon Linnaeus' classification 1768-1780 - Voyages of James Cook to the Pacific and Australia during which many birds new to science are collected by Joseph Banks and Johann Reinhold Forster 1770-1783 - Buffon's Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux was the first work to take into account the geographical distribution of birds 1776 - Francesco Cetti publishes Uccelli di Sardegna 1778 - Juan Ignacio Molina publishes Saggio sulla storia naturale del Chile which includes the first descriptions of many South American species 1785 - John Latham completes his Synopsis of Birds, which describes many birds collected in Australia and the Pacific Ocean. Thomas Pennant publishes Arctic Zoology. 1788 - Johann Friedrich Gmelin commences work on the 13th edition of Systema Naturae which includes the classification of many birds for the first time, especially those described by Latham 1789 - Publication of Gilbert White's Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne 1797 - Francois Levaillant begins publication of his Oiseaux d'Afrique giving details of species encountered on his exploration of South Africa 1797 -1804 - Publication of Thomas Bewick's British Birds 1801 - Alexander Wilson begins his study of North American birds, resulting in his American Ornithology (1808-1814), later updated by Charles Lucien Bonaparte 1802 - Publication of George Montagu's Ornithological Dictionary 1811 - Publication of Peter Simon Pallas' Zoographia Russo-Asiatica includes details of the birds encountered in his journeys through Siberia 1815 - Coenraad Jacob Temminck publishes his Manuel d'ornithologie, the standard work on European birds for many years 1827-1838 - Publication of John James Audubon's Birds of America 1831-1836 - Charles Darwin travels to South America and the Galapagos Islands on board HMS Beagle. His study of Galapagos finches gives him ideas on natural selection 1832 - Edward Lear publishes Illustrations of the Family of Psittacidae 1838 - John Gould travels to Australia with his wife to study the birds of that country 1840 - John Gould publishes the first part of his Birds of Australia 1844 - The last Great Auk is recorded in Iceland 1857 - Philip Sclater presents his paper On the General Geographical Distribution of the Members of the Class Aves to the Linnean Society 1858 - Alfred Newton forms the British Ornithologists' Union 1861 - Fossil of archaeopteryx found in Germany supports link between dinosaurs and birds 1868 - Association for the Protection of Seabirds formed in England 1869 - The Seabirds Protection Act is the first law passed in the United Kingdom to protect birds 1873 - Publication of Ornitologia Italiana by Paolo Savi 1879 - Richard Owen publishes the results of his studies of Moa fossils 1883 - Foundation of the American Ornithologists' Union 1883 - Foundation of the Bombay Natural History Society 1884 - First International Ornithological Congress held in Vienna, with Gustav Radde as President 1889 - Foundation of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds to campaign against the plumage trade 1889 - Ludwig Koch makes the first sound recording of birdsong, that of a captive Common Sharma 1899 - Christian Mortensen of Viborg, Denmark is the first ornithologist to undertake systematic large-scale ringing. He uses numbered aluminium rings to mark 165 Starlings caught in nestboxes 1901 - Johanness Thienemann establishes "Vogelwarte Rossitten" (now Rybachy), the world's first bird observatory 1901 - The Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union established 1905 - Foundation of the National Audubon Society 1907 - The monthly journal British Birds begins publication 1909 - First organised ringing schemes in the UK 1909 - A bird observatory is established at Heligoland by Hugo Weigold. Birds are collected in specially designed wire-netting traps, still known today as "Heligoland Traps" 1909 - First known mapping census carried out in Kent, England by the Alexander brothers 1910-1911 - BOU expedition to Dutch New Guinea 1912 - A Barn Swallow ringed by James Masefield in Staffordshire, England is recovered in Natal, South Africa 1914 - The last Passenger Pigeon dies in Cincinnati Zoo 1922 - Foundation of the International Council for Bird Preservation (now Birdlife International) 1922 - Publication of John Charles Phillips's A Natural History of the Ducks, which provides maps of the known breeding and wintering distributions of ducks throughout the world 1928 - Ernst Mayr leads the first of three expeditions to New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, during which he discovers many new species 1930 - Alexander Wetmore publishes his Systematic Classification 1931 - Ernst Schüz and Hugo Weigold publish Atlas des Vogelzuges, the first atlas of bird migration 1932 - Foundation of the British Trust for Ornithology for the study of birds in Britain 1934 - Roger Tory Peterson publishes his Guide to the Birds, the first modern field guide 1935 - Konrad Lorenz publishes his study of imprinting in young ducklings and goslings 1937 - Margaret Morse Nice publishes Studies in the Life History of the Song Sparrow 1938 - Foundation of the Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology 1943 - David Lack makes calculations of bird mortality using reports of ringed birds 1946 - Peter Scott founds the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust at Slimbridge 1950 - Rocket nets developed by the Wildfowl Trust for catching geese 1951-1954 - The 6-volume Birds of the Soviet Union by GP Dementev and NA Gladkov published 1953 - Niko Tinbergen publishes The Herring Gull's World 1954 - Protection of Birds Act in the UK prohibits the collection of birds eggs 1956 - First use of mist nets (invented in Japan) in the UK to trap birds 1962 - Rachel Carson publishes Silent Spring, describing the ecological dangers of pesticides 1967 - Publication of Radar Ornithology by Eric Eastwood 1968-1972 - First national breeding bird atlas project conducted in Britain and Ireland 1970 - The Atlas of Breeding Birds of the West Midlands by Lord and Munns is the first to use systematic grid-based method for gathering of information 1976 - Publication of national atlases for Great Britain and Ireland, France and Denmark 1981 - Sibley and Ahlquist use DNA-DNA hybridisation to determine degrees of genetic similarity between species 1984 - Publication of The Atlas of Australian Birds This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.