John Whitehead (explorer)
John Whitehead (30 June 1860 – 2 June 1899) was an English explorer, naturalist and professional collector of bird specimens.
Whitehead travelled in Malacca, North Borneo, Java, and Palawan between 1885 and 1888, where he collected a number of zoological specimens new to science, including Whitehead's broadbill (Calyptomena whiteheadi), writing up his experiences in a book on his return.[1] Between 1893 and 1896 he explored in the Philippines, again collecting many new species, including the Philippine eagle, the binomial name of which commemorates Whitehead's father Jeffrey.
Several species related to John Whitehead:
- Whitehead's woolly bat Kerivoula whiteheadi
- Harpy fruit bat Harpyionycteris whiteheadi
- Whitehead's spiny rat Maxomys whiteheadi
- Luzon striped rat Chrotomys whiteheadi
- Tufted pygmy squirrel Exilisciurus whiteheadi
- Luzon striped rat Chrotomys whiteheadi
- Whitehead's Borneo frog - Meristogenys whiteheadi
- White-winged magpie Urocissa whiteheadi
- Whitehead's broadbill Calyptomena whiteheadi
- Whitehead's trogon Harpactes whiteheadi
- Whitehead's spiderhunter Arachnothera juliae
- Spotted wood-owl Surnia whiteheadi
- Whitehead's swiftlet Collocalia whiteheadi
- Bornean stubtail Urosphena whiteheadi
- Chestnut-faced babbler Zosterornis whiteheadi
- Corsican nuthatch Sitta whiteheadi
- Hainan silver pheasant Lophura nycthemera whiteheadi
Whitehead intended to return to the Philippines in 1899, but was he was forced to alter his plans by the Spanish-American War. He instead travelled to the island of Hainan, where he died of fever.
References
- Biographies for Birdwatchers, Barbara & Richard Mearns ISBN 0-12-487422-3