Albert Stewart Meek
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Albert Stewart Meek (1871–1943) was a British bird collector and naturalist.
Meek was born in London, the son of a merchant in natural history items. In 1893 he travelled to Australia and he spent some time at George Barnard’s cattle station Coomooboolaroo, the only place in Australia where the now extinct Paradise Parrot had occurred. It is not known if Meek ever saw this species. In 1894 he began collecting bird and insect specimens for the well-known zoologist Lionel Walter Rothschild, first in England, then in Australia, and later in the Pacific region (in particular the Solomon Islands and New Guinea). His collection of bird skins and insects belongs to the most important exhibits in the Natural History Museum in London. Specimens from Meek's collections can be also seen in the American Museum of Natural History.
Species named after Meek include seven full bird species:
Choiseul Crested Pigeon (Migrogoura meeki), Meek's Lorikeet (Charmosyna meeki), Meek's Pygmy Parrot (Micropsitta meeki), Bougainville Crow (Corvus meeki), White-throated White-eye (Zosterops meeki), Olive-streaked Honeyeater (Ptiloprora meekiana), and the Manus Hawk Owl (Ninox meeki).
[edit] Trivia
- He was also a dealer in feathers and insects.
- During an expedition in New Guinea he estimated that the headdress of a Papua chief needs the feathers of more than 23 killed birds (e.g. Birds of Paradise) to create the middle alone.
- Due to the horrible reputation of the Choiseul islanders as cannibals he was protected by an armed escort to bring the skins to his vessel.
- He was the first who observed the birdlife on Bougainville.
- Discovered and shot the first specimen of the Queen Alexandra's Birdwing (Ornithoptera alexandrae) in 1906, the largest butterfly in the world.
- sometimes credited as Alfred S. Meek, which is incorrect.
[edit] Literature by and about Albert S. Meek
- Rothschild, M. 1983. Dear Lord Rothschild: Birds, butterflies and history. Balaban, Philadelphia. xx + 398 pp. Mentions Walter Rothschild's collectors in New Guinea, including William Doherty, Albert S. Meek, Ernst Mayr, etc.
- Rothschild, W., and E. Hartert. 1913. List of the collections of birds made by Albert S. Meek in the lower ranges of the Snow Mountains, on the Eilanden River, and on Mount Goliath during the years 1910 and 1911. Novitates Zoologicae 20:473-527. Notes on Lepidoptera collected by Albert S. Meek in Irian Jaya during 1910 and 1911, including descriptions of localities
- Barbara and Richard Mearns, The Bird Collectors, Academic Press, 1998, ISBN 0-12-487440-1
- Albert S. Meek, A Naturalist in Cannibal Land, 1913, Fischer Unwin, London
