Melville Island cooperi (1 Viewer)

[PScofield]

(subsp. Gavicalis virescens, syn. Myiagra ruficollis mimikae).

So in searching for Mathew's honourees for the last thread I found a better explanation for Mathews's two uses of "cooperi".

Cooper's Camp was the location that the types were collected and correctly (well not incorrectly) the Key has:

Coopers Camp, Melville I., Northern Territory, Australia (subsp. Gavicalis virescens, syn. Myiagra ruficollis mimikae).

However, the name ending in i is more likely to honour a person and that person is the man who established Cooper's camp Joe Cooper the "King of Melville Island". There is no way Rogers could have visited Melville and the Tiwi islands without Cooper's support.

Cooper, Robert Joel (Joe) (1860–1936)

Chapter 4 – The King of Melville Island, Robert Joel Cooper’s amazing story

In 1878, the two Cooper brother's Joe Cooper and Harry Cooper, with horses and packs and accompanied by their father George Alfred Cooper, travelled overland to the Northern Territory in the wake of John McDougall Stuart. In 1879, after a long and exhausting journey they arrived safely in the...

fayberrystory.com

Biography - Robert Joel (Joe) Cooper - Australian Dictionary of Biography

adb.anu.edu.au

Mathews in his account of his collectors calls John Porter Rogers the man who "has helped Australian ornithology more than that of any other single collector".

Mathews wrote an account of Roger's life but it is in the Austral Avian Record from 1927 that we do not have and is not digitized. Does anyone have a copy?

 

[Taphrospilus]

I am wondering why biodiversitylibrary often stops in 1922 (but not for all journals). At least I do not get this rule of copy right. In Germany it is 70 years after the death auf the author. But this might be a US law. But I assume you meant

Mathews , G.M. 1927. Australian ornithologists . J.P. Rogers . Austral Avian Record 5 (5) : 103-105

Extracts here. Even here stops at 5(4).

 

[Björn Bergenholtz]

...

However, the name ending in i is more likely to honour a person and that person is the man who established Cooper's camp Joe Cooper the "King of Melville Island". There is no way Rogers could have visited Melville and the Tiwi islands without Cooper's support.

...

Paul, you might be right, or not, of course Cooper could have been the dedicatee (he most certainly ought to have been involved in any, or most, visits to Melvile Island, during his 'reign'), but without a clear dedication, or another obvious explanation, it's hard to tell, and remember that Mathews coined many (loads and loads) of toponyms ending with -i, making them all look like eponyms. From that (tiny) part alone it's close to impossible to draw any conclusions what-so-ever. This far I'd trust (what little is told in) the ODs.

The wilful mind of Mr Mathews remain a mystery ...

Keep digging.

/B

 

[l_raty]

However, the name ending in i is more likely to honour a person

I wouldn't be too sure about this for a name coming from a man who authored such things as "territori" (< Northern Territories) or "kimberli" (< Kimberley). Many of Mathews' toponyms actually end in a simple genitive (either -i, or -- though less frequently -- -ae, e.g. cairnsae < Cairns, in N Queensland).
That being said, if the person was involved, why not.

Mathews wrote an account of Roger's life but it is in the Austral Avian Record from 1927 that we do not have and is not digitized. Does anyone have a copy?

Hathi has it here, in a copy (incorrectly) dated "1915-1822", hence deemed "Public Domain in the United States", and accessible for US IPs. The pp are 103-104 (not 105). Here is a transcription -

AUSTRALIAN ORNITHOLOGISTS.
J.P. ROGERS.​

It is very surprising that I omitted this name from my "Bibliography," as he stands out as the finest collector of birds that Australia has produced to date.
John Porter Rogers was born at Riverlea, Tallarook, Victoria, on November 27th, 1873. His father was John Rogers, a native of co. Fermanagh, Ireland, who emigrated to Australia in the 'sixties and died in 1873. His mother was Jane Porter, a native of Londonderry, who came to Australia with her parents as a child. His parents were married at Seymour, Victoria, in 1871.
As soon as J. P. Rogers was able he went out into the wilds. Arriving in West Australia in 1895, he went prospecting for gold, and while in the North-West in 1898 contracted malaria which necessitated his return to Victoria for a time. When in Melbourne he met Mr. Robert Hall and arranged to collect bird skins in the North-West, to where Rogers was returning. During the next three years, while working on the stations in the Fitzroy River district, he made large collections in his spare time, which Mr. Hall reported upon in the Emu. Then back to station work alone until 1905, when he began bird-catching, first with Eugene Ettable and later with Messrs. Payne and Wallace, making big collections of all the Finches and Parrots, which were shipped to England. While these were on the way Rogers went after Emblema picta and found that on Hall's Creek these were present and secured a number of pairs.
Rogers came to England in 1908 and wrote to Dr. Bowdler Sharpe asking him if there was any opening for a collector, and Dr. Sharpe introduced him to me. Rogers agreed to collect for me in the Wyndham district and from August, 1908, to April, 1909, made a good collection, but, owing to repeated attacks of malaria, gave it up, and for a time went collecting and prospecting with Wallace who had come out bird-catching again. They had no luck after gold, but Wallace got a good series of birds and went off to England again, while Rogers went inland to Tanamai after gold. Though about 100 prospectors arrived not one saw colour, and the only result to Rogers was that he got rid of his malaria for a time. Birds were scarce but Rogers got a few on the way. He then returned to the Fitzroy and began collecting for me again, working round Derby and Point Torment, King Sound, and then up the Fitzroy River to Marngle Creek. Upon his return to Derby he received my letter asking him if he would go to Melville Island, whereupon he at once shipped for there, arriving in August, 1911, worked all over the island until September, 1912, when he left Australia and went to the Philippine Islands, arriving back in April, 1914. I met him in Brisbane and he agreed to go with Captain S. A. White to the Musgrave and Everard Ranges, the last trip he has made after birds. On this trip he met Kathleen Gillespie and at the first opportunity secured a dairy farm in Northern New South Wales and married. Volunteered for service but was rejected; volunteered again in 1918 and was accepted but saw no service.
In my opinion Australia has not produced a more able fieldornithologist. He was no writer, so that his severely scant epistles only gave the essential points and the specimens, which are a pleasure to handle, must tell their own tale. His powers of observation were of the keenest and his dogged determination enabled him to overcome obstacles that would have staved a less able man. For example, when he left Melville Island he rowed down the coast in a whale boat to Wyndham, in North-west Australia.
His knowledge of the bird life of the North-West was wonderfully complete and accurate and his memory was exceptional.

 

[Björn Bergenholtz]

Quick one, just to show what (little) is told in the ODs, regarding...

cooperi as in:
• the Singing Honeyeater ssp. (Lichenostomus/Meliphaga) Gavicalis virescens cooperi MATHEWS 1912 (here), as "Ptilotis sonora cooperi", a k a "Melville Island Singing Honey-eater"
• the invalid "Myiagra latirostris cooperi"* MATHEWS 1912 (here), a k a "Melville Island Broad-billed Flycatcher"

To me, after having read Laurent's post #4, it sure looks like he did deserve a bird "of his own", but if he ever got one? Or two? That's a far trickier question to answer. But why not? I see nothing pointing against it, nor the opposite way around ...

I guess you need to dig deep into the Australian archives to find the truth (if lucky, of course, presumably the ones in Canberra, where most of Mathews's manuscripts and notes seems to be kept today).

Cheers

/B

---

*Today a synonym of the road-billed Flycatcher ssp. Myiagra ruficollis mimikae Ogilvie-Grant, 1911

 

[PScofield]

Thanks Laurent - I wanted the text of AAR 5(5) to see whether it mentioned details of Rogers trip to Melville Island but no luck

The key correctly identifies:

John Porter Rogers (1873-1941) Australian ornithologist, gold prospector, collector (syn. Anas gracilis, subsp. Anas superciliosa, subsp. Anthus novaeseelandiae, subsp. Butorides striata, subsp. Calidris canutus, syn. Calidris falcinellus, syn. Caprimulgus macrurus schlegelii, syn. Chalcites osculans, subsp. Chalcophaps indica, syn. Chlidonias hybrida javanicus, syn. Cincloramphus cruralis, syn. Circus assimilis, syn. Daphoenositta chrysoptera leucoptera, syn. Eulabeornis castaneoventris, syn. Gavicalis virescens forresti, subsp. Gerygone olivacea, syn. Limicola falcinellus sibirica, subsp. Malurus lamberti, syn. Myiagra nana, syn. Nettapus pulchellus, syn. Onychoprion anaethetus, syn. Pardalotus striatus substriatus, syn. Petrochelidon nigricans neglecta, syn. Plegadis falcinellus, subsp. Podargus papuensis, syn. Polytelis alexandrae, syn. Poodytes carteri, syn. Smicrornis brevirostris flavescens, syn. Sula leucogaster plotus, syn. Synoicus ypsilophorus australis).

So he is well honoured...