Osbert Salvin

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Osbert Salvin.

Osbert Salvin (February 25, 1835 - June 1, 1898) was an English naturalist.

Salvin is best known for co-authoring Biologia Centrali-Americanum (1879-1915) with Frederick DuCane Godman. This was a 52 volume encyclopedia on the natural history of Central America.

Born in Finchley, Salvin was the second son of Anthony Salvin, architect, of Hawksfold, Sussex. He was educated at Westminster and Trinity Hall, Cambridge, taking his degree in 1857. Shortly afterwards he accompanied Henry Baker Tristram to Tunisia and eastern Algeria. In 1857 he made the first of several visits to Guatemala, returning there with Godman in 1861. It was during this journey that the Biologia Centrali-Americana was planned.

In 1871 he became editor of The Ibis. He was appointed to the Strickland Curatorship in the University of Cambridge, and produced his Catalogue of the Strickland Collection. He was one of the original members of the British Ornithologists' Union. He produced the volumes on the Trochilidae and the Procellariidae in the Catalogue of Birds in the British Museum. One of his last works was the completion of Lord Lilford's Coloured Figures of British Birds (1897).

Salvin was a Fellow of the Royal Society, the Linnean, Zoological and Entomological Societies, and at the time of his death was Secretary of the B.O.U..

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