Gregory Macalister MathewsCBEFRSE FZS FLS (10 September 1876 – 27 March 1949) was an Australian-born amateur ornithologist who spent most of his later life in England.
Mathews was a controversial figure in Australian ornithology. He was responsible for bringing trinomial nomenclature into local taxonomy, however he was regarded as an extreme splitter. He recognised large numbers of subspecies on scant evidence and few notes.[2] The extinct Lord Howe Pigeon was described by Mathews in 1915, using a painting as a guide.[3] At the time, he named it Raperia godmanae for Alice Mary Godman.[4]
His approach drew a hostile response from Archibald James Campbell, a leading Australian figure in birds at the time. He later began splitting genera. Dominic Serventy foretold that although a great many of these subspecies ceased to be recognised, future research would have to resort to the use of some of them if and when evidence supported their distinct status.[2]
Mathews contributed numerous papers to the ornithological literature, especially on avian taxonomy and nomenclature, as well as founding, funding, editing and being the principal contributor to the journalThe Austral Avian Record. Monographic or book-length works authored or coauthored by him include:
1908 – The Handlist of the Birds of Australia. (Based on A Handlist of Birds by Bowdler Sharpe).
1912 – The Reference List of the Birds of Australia. (Novitates Zoologicae, 18 January 1912).
1913 – A List of the Birds of Australia. Witherby: London.
1920 – The Name List of the Birds of Australia.
1921 – A Manual of the Birds of Australia. Volume I: Orders Casuarii to Columbae. Witherby: London. (With Tom Iredale. Only one volume published of a projected four).
1924 – The Check-List of the Birds of Australia. Witherby: London. (Comprising Supplements 1-3 of The Birds of Australia).
1925 – The Bibliography of the Birds of Australia. Witherby: London. (Comprising Supplements 4 and 5 of The Birds of Australia).
1927 – Systema Avium Australasianarum. a Systematic List of the Birds of the Australasian Region. BOU: London. (2 volumes).
1928 – The Birds of Norfolk and Lord Howe Islands and the Australian South Polar Quadrant. Witherby: London.
1931 – A List of the Birds of Australasia, Including New Zealand, Lord Howe and Norfolk Islands, and the Australasian Antarctic Quadrant.
1936 – A Supplement to the Birds of Norfolk and Lord Howe Islands to which is Added those Birds of New Zealand not figured by Buller. Witherby: London.
1942 – Birds and Books: the Story of the Mathews Ornithological Library. Verity Hewitt Bookshop: Canberra.
1943 – Notes on the Order Procellariiformes. (With Edward Hallstrom).
1946 – A Working List of Australian Birds, including the Australian Quadrant and New Zealand. Shepherd Press: Sydney.
Referencesedit
^Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002(PDF). The Royal Society of Edinburgh. July 2006. ISBN 0-902-198-84-X.
^ abcServenty, Dominic (1950). "Taxonomic Trends in Australian Ornithology—with Special Reference to the Work of Gregory Mathews President's Address to the Annual Congress, Hobart, 1949". Emu. 49 (4): 257–67. doi:10.1071/MU949257.
^"Pigeon more information". The Natural History Museum. Retrieved 11 December 2008.
^Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (19 March 2020). The Eponym Dictionary of Birds. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 218. ISBN 978-1-4729-8269-8.
Robin, Libby. (2001). The Flight of the Emu: a hundred years of Australian ornithology 1901-2001. Carlton, Vic. Melbourne University Press. ISBN 0-522-84987-3
External linksedit
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