Timeline of ornithology explained

The following is a timeline of ornithology events:

Until 1700

• 1500–800 BC – The Vedas mention the habit of brood parasitism in the Asian koel (Eudynamys scolopacea).^[1]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle mentions over 170 sorts of birds in his work on animals. He recognises eight principal groups.
• 3rd century BC – The Erya, a Chinese encyclopedia comprising glosses on passages in ancient texts, notably the Book of Songs, features 79 entries in its chapter "Describing Birds"
• 1st century AD – Pliny the Elder's Historia Naturalis Book X is devoted to birds. Three groups based on characteristics of feet
• 2nd century AD – Aelian mentions a number of birds in his work on animals. Birds are listed alphabetically
• 1037 – Death of Abu ‘Ali al-Husayn ibn Abd Allah ibn Sina (known as Avicenna in Latin) author of Abbreviatio de animalibus, a homage to Aristotle
• c 1100 Hugh of Fouilloy authors De avibus, a moral treatise on birds later incorporated into many versions of the popular medieval bestiary.
• 1220 – Books on birds and other animals by Aristotle and Avicenna translated into Latin for the first time by Michael Scot
• 1250 – Death of Frederick II von Hohenstaufen, Holy Roman Emperor, and author of De arte venandi cum avibus ("concerning the art of hunting with birds") that describes the first manipulative experiments in ornithology and the methods of falconry
• 1478 – De Animalibus by Albertus Magnus is printed, which mentions many bird names. It had been written between 1260 and 1280.
• 1485 – First dated copy of Ortus sanitatis by Johannes de Cuba
• 1544 – William Turner prints a commentary on the birds mentioned by Aristotle and Pliny.^[2]
• 1555 – Conrad Gessner'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.^{[3] [4]}
• 1573 – Volcher Coiter publishes his first treatise on bird anatomy
• 1591 – Joris Hoefnagel starts to work for Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor and produces for him 90 oil-base paintings, of which one is of the dodo.
• 1596 – The Compendium of Chinese Materia Medica by Li Shizhen includes a total of 77 species of bird.
• 1599 – Beginning of the publication of the works of Ulisse Aldrovandi on birds.^[5]
• 1603 – Caspar Schwenckfeld publishes the first regional fauna of Europe: Therio-tropheum Silesiae.
• 1605 – Clusius publishes Exoticorum libri decem ("Ten books of exotics") in which he describes many new exotic species.
• 1609 – The illustrated Sancai Tuhui, a Chinese encyclopedia by Wang Qi & Wang Siyi, lists a total of 113 species of bird.
• 1638 – Georg Marcgraf begins a voyage to Brazil where he studies the fauna and flora.
• 1652 – Leopoldina founded in the Holy Roman Empire. It is the oldest continuously existing learned society in the world.
• 1655 – Ole Worm collects a famous cabinet of curiosities whose illustrated inventory appears in 1655, Museum Wormianum. This collection comprises many birds but the techniques of conservation are not successful and they are quickly destroyed by insects.
• 1657 – Publication of Historiae naturalis de avibus by John Jonston.
• 1667 – Christopher Merrett publishes the first fauna of Great Britain, followed two years later by that of Walter Charleton.
• 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.^[6]
• 1681 – The last dodo dies on the island of Mauritius

18th century

• 1702 – Ferdinand Johann Adam von Pernau publishes a popular pioneering essay on bird behaviour.
• 1710 – Osservatorio Ornitologico di Arosio established
• 1713 – Death of the collector Johan de la Faille
• 1715 – Levinus Vincent publishes Wondertooneel der Nature the Wonder Theater of Nature
• 1716 – Peter the Great purchases the natural history collection of Albertus Seba
• 1724–1726 – François Valentijn and George Eberhard Rumpf give the first accounts of birds-of-paradise in Oud en Nieuw Oost-Indiën ("Old and New East India")
• 1729–1747 – Mark Catesby publishes his The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands which included 220 plates of birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, insects, mammals and plants.^[7]
• 1731–1738 Eleazar Albin publishes A Natural History of Birds.^[8]
• 1733 – Great Northern Expedition leaves Saint Petersburg
• 1735 – Carl Linnaeus publishes his Systema Naturae. The classification of birds follows that of Ray
• 1737 – Giuseppe Zinanni writes the first book entirely devoted to the eggs and nests of birds, Dell Uova Nidi e dei degli Uccelli published in Venice
• 1741 – Georg Steller studies the birds of the north Pacific on his voyage with Vitus Bering
• 1742–1743 – Johann Heinrich Zorn publishes Petino-Theologie oder Versuch, Die Menschen durch nähere Betrachtung Der Vögel Zur Bewunderung Liebe und Verehrung ihres mächtigsten, weissest- und gütigsten Schöpffers aufzumuntern. Ornithotheology, or an encouragement to humanity, through a careful observation of birds, towards admiration, love and respect for their powerful, of the wise and good Creator.
• 1743 – George Edwards begins publication of his bird plates.^[9]
• 1754 – Jean-Louis Alléon-Dulac publishes Mélange d'histoire naturelle
• 1756 – Wilhelm Heinrich Kramer publishes in Elenchus Vegetabilium et Animalium per Austriam inferiorem Observatorum
• 1756 – Louis Daniel Arnault de Nobleville publishes Histoire naturelle des animaux
• 1757 – Michel Adanson publishes Histoire naturelle du Senegal.
• 1758 – Carl Linnaeus publishes the first volume of the 10th edition of his Systema Naturae, the first application of binomial nomenclature to birds.^[10]
• 1759–1771 – Peter Ascanius Icones rerum naturalium
• 1760 – Mathurin Jacques Brisson's six-volume Ornithologie improves upon Linnaeus' classification.^[11]

• 1763 – Erik Pontoppidan begins Den Danske atlas eller Konge-Riget Dannemark
• 1765 – Edme-Louis Daubenton engaged by Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon to supervise the illustration of his Histoire naturelle
• 1766 – Publication of the 12th edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. This was the last edition published in Linnaeus's lifetime. It included the binomial names for 931 bird species.^{[12] [13]}
• 1766–1769 French naturalist Philibert Commerçon accompanies Louis Antoine de Bougainville on a voyage of circumnavigation
• 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
• 1768 Ivan Lepyokhin explores the Volga region
• 1770–1783 – Buffon's Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux was the first work to take into account the geographical distribution of birds
• 1770 – Cornelius Nozeman begins work on Nederlandsche Vogelen
• 1774 – Jacob Christian Schäffer divides the birds into two families, Palmipedes (web-footed) and the much larger family Nudipedes (not web-footed) in Elementa Ornithologica.
• 1775 – Ashton Lever begins exhibiting his bird collection at a public museum called the Holophusikon
• 1776 – Francesco Cetti publishes Uccelli di Sardegna.^[14]
• 1776 – Saverio Manetti publishes the monumental Storia naturale degli uccelli
• 1776 – Philipp Ludwig Statius Müller publishes Des Ritters Carl von Linné Königlich Schwedischen Leibarztes ....^[15]
• 1776 – Peter Brown publishes New illustrations of Zoology.^[16]

Notes and References

1. Book: Ali, S . 1979. Bird study in India: Its history and its importance. Indian Council for Cultural Relations, New Delhi.
2. Book: Turner, William . William Turner (naturalist) . 1544 . Avium praecipuarum, quarum apud Plinium et Aristotelem mentio est, brevis et succincta historia . [Cologne] . Johann Gymnicus . Pages are unnumbered .
3. Book: Gesner, Conrad . Conrad Gessner . Historiae animalium liber III qui est de auium natura. Adiecti sunt ab initio indices alphabetici decem super nominibus auium in totidem linguis diuersis: & ante illos enumeratio auium eo ordiné quo in hoc volumine continentur . 1555 . Froschauer . Zurich . Latin .
4. Book: Belon, Pierre . Pierre Belon . 1555 . L'histoire de la natvre des oyseavx : avec levrs descriptions, & naïfs portraicts retirez du natvrel, escrite en sept livres . French . Paris . Gilles Corrozet .
5. Book: Aldrovandi, Ulisse . Ulisse Aldrovandi . 1599 . Vlyssis Aldrovandi philosophi ac medici Bononiensis historiam naturalem in gymnasio Bononiensi profitentis, Ornithologiae . 1 . Latin . Bononiae (Bologna, Italy) . Franciscum de Franciscis Senensem .
6. Book: Willughby, Francis . Francis Willughby . 1676 . Ornithologiae libri tres . Latin . London . John Martyn .
7. Book: Catesby, Mark . Mark Catesby . 1729–1732 . The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands . 1 . London . W. Innys and R. Manby . English, French . For the publication dates see: Overstreet . Leslie K. . 2014 . The dates of the parts of Mark Catesby's The natural history of Carolina ... (London, 1731–1743 [1729–1747]) . Archives of Natural History . 41 . 2 . 362–364 . 10.3366/anh.2014.0256 . none .
8. Book: Albin . Eleazar . Eleazar Albin . Derham . William . William Derham . 1738 . A Natural History of Birds : Illustrated with a Hundred and One Copper Plates, Curiously Engraven from the Life . 1 . London . Printed for the author and sold by William Innys .
9. Book: Edwards, George . George Edwards (naturalist) . 1743 . A Natural History of Uncommon Birds . London . Printed for the author at the College of Physicians . 1 .
10. Book: Linnaeus, Carl . Carl Linnaeus . 1758 . Systema Naturae per regna tria naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis . 1 . 10th . Laurentii Salvii . Holmiae (Stockholm) . Latin .
11. Book: Brisson, Mathurin Jacques . Mathurin Jacques Brisson . 1760 . Ornithologie, ou, Méthode Contenant la Division des Oiseaux en Ordres, Sections, Genres, Especes & leurs Variétés . French, Latin. Paris . Jean-Baptiste Bauche .
12. Book: Linnaeus, Carl . Carl Linnaeus . 1766 . Systema naturae : per regna tria natura, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis . 12th . 1, Part 1 . Laurentii Salvii . Holmiae (Stockholm) . Latin .
13. Allen . J.A. . Joel Asaph Allen . 1910 . Collation of Brisson's genera of birds with those of Linnaeus . Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History . 28 . 317–335 [324] . 2246/678 .
14. Book: Cetti, Francesco . Francesco Cetti . 1776 . Storia naturale di Sardegna . 2: Gli uccelli di Sardegna . Italian . Sassari . G. Piattoli .
15. Book: Statius Müller, Philipp Ludwig . Philipp Ludwig Statius Müller . 1776 . Des Ritters Carl von Linné Königlich Schwedischen Lelbarztes uc. uc. vollständigen Natursystems Supplements und Register-Band über alle sechs Theile oder Classen des Thierreichs mit einer ausführlichen Erklärung ausgefertiget . Nürnberg . Gabriel Nicolaus Raspe . German .
16. Book: Brown, Peter . Peter Brown (naturalist) . 1776 . https://gdz.sub.uni-goettingen.de/id/PPN603834043?tify={%22pages%22:[114,%22view%22:%22info%22 } Nouvelles illustrations de zoologie : contenant cinquante planches enlumineés d'oiseaux curieux, et qui non etés jamais descrits, et quelques de quadrupedes, de reptiles et d'insectes, avec de courtes descriptions systematiques ]. French, English . London . B. White .