Ammomanes deserti annae Meinertzhagen, R 1923 and others (6 Viewers)

[Taphrospilus]

Ammomanes deserti annae Meinertzhagen, R 1923 OD v.41-43=no.253-280 (1920-1923) - Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club - Biodiversity Heritage Library
Anthus cinnamomeus annae Meinertzhagen, R 1921 OD ser.11:v.3=no.[9-12] (1921) [Incomplete] - Ibis - Biodiversity Heritage Library
Cisticola cisticola annae Meinertzhagen, R 1922 OD ser.11:v.4=no.[13-16] (1922) - Ibis - Biodiversity Heritage Library

The Eponym Dictionary of Birds

A comprehensive dictionary listing all the people whose names are commemorated in the English and scientific names of birds.Birdwatchers often come across bird names that include a person's name, either in the vernacular (English) name or latinised in the scientific nomenclature. Such names are...

books.google.com

African Pipit ssp. Anthus cinnamomeus annae Meinertzhagen, 1921
Desert Lark ssp. Ammomanes deserti annae Meinertzhagen, 1923
Mrs Anne Constance Meinertzhagen née Jackson (1888– 1928) was the second wife of Richard Meinertzhagen (q.v.). She was well known as an ornithologistin her own right and travelled to Denmark (1921), Egypt and Palestine (1923), Madeira (1925) and India (1925–1926), the latter with her husband, collecting and studying the avifauna. She died from a revolver bullet through the head whilst in the company of her husband just three months after the birth of their child. This was described as an accident although there was no inquest, and it has been claimed both that she committed suicide suffering post-natal depression after the birth of her third child, and that her husband shot her, particularly as the path of the bulletmakes suicide very unlikely.

The Key to Scientific Names - Birds of the World

Species accounts for all the birds of the world.

birdsoftheworld.org

Annie Constance Meinertzhagen née Jackson (1888-1928) Scottish ornithologist, second wife of Col. R. Meinertzhagen (subsp. Ammomanes deserti, subsp. Anthus cinnamomeus, syn. Cisticola juncidis).

Björn recently reported that Mearns & Mearns 2022 have her as:

Annie Constance Meinertzhagen, née Jackson (1888–1928), ... "Scottish ornithologist.

Obituary https://britishbirds.co.uk/sites/default/files/V22_N03_P058-060_OB013.pdf or Annie Meinertzhagen - Wikipedia with picture.

So from obituary

Mrs. Meinertzhagen was the elder daughter of the late Major and Mrs. Randle Jackson of Swordale and was born, on June 2nd, 1889.

Indeed Annie and not Anne and Scottish. Feel free to add anything of value to this thread. She was short mentioned n this thread Pycnonotus leucogenys lapersonnei Abdulali 1982 & Carpodacus rubicilloides lapersonnei Meinertzhagen, R & Meinertzhagen, AC 1926

 

[Mike Earp]

Björn recently reported that Mearns & Mearns 2022 have him as:

Feel free to add anything of value to this thread.

Her not him.

 

[Björn Bergenholtz]

Just some additional details (and some pondering) ...

Re. the Birth of Annie (Constance) Meinertzhagen (née Jackson).

According to Mearns and Mearns (2022*, vol.2, p.481) [my blue] :

b. [born] 2 June 1888: Swordale, Ross and Cromarty, Scotland
d. [died] 6 July 1928, ...at the very same place.

Though, the text itself also says:

... . She died aged 39 from a revolver bullet in the head while target shooting, killed by her own hand or that of her husband, the controversial incident is discussed in detail by Crocker (1989) [**] and Garfield (2007) [***].

But ... either way, however tragic, if born "2 June 1888", and died "6 July 1928", wouldn't one expect her to have been mentioned in such a text as "aged" 40 ... or ?!?

Also, note that the only other reference, for the text by the Mearns Couple, is the Obituary in British Birds 22, pp. 58–60 (see link in post #1), which does indeed claim that Mrs. Meinerszhagen: "was born on June 2nd, 1889", as the "elder daughter of the late Major and Mrs. Randle Jackson of Swordale ..."

What claim, which year/s, were typo/s, or simply erroneous, alt. is/was it just Bad Math?

On my behalf (without any official records seen) I now tend towards a Birth in 1889.

Anyone who knows? For sure?

Björn

---

*Biographies for Birdwatchers – The Lives of Those Commemorated in Western Palearctic Bird Names (Revised and expanded edition), by Barbara Mearns and Richard Mearns (662 pages, in two volumes), © 2022.

---

**Crocker, M. 1898. Richard Meinertzhagen. Soldier, Scientist and Spy. London.
***Garfield, R. 2007. The Meinertzhagen Mystery. The Life and Legend of a Cilossal Fraud. Washington, D.C.

 

[Björn Bergenholtz]

Of course, the same would also concern the eponym ...

meinertzhagenae as in:
• the Subantarctic Snipe ssp. Coenocorypha aucklandica meinertzhagenae ROTHSCHILD 1927 (here, in text):

... This being the fact, we must conclude that the type of G. [Gallinago] tristrami did not come from the Antipodes Islands, though labelled so by a dealer. As thus the real Antipodes snipe has no available name, I propose to call it Coenocorypha aucklandica meinertzhagenae Rothsch., subsp. nov., in honour of Mrs. Meinertzhagen, as the author of the excellent review of the subfamily Scolopacinae commenced in the Ibis, 1926.
...

Note, the Ibis Paper, of 1926, unseen by me.

Annie's Obituary by H. F. Witherby, in British Birds 22 (No. 3): pp. 58-59 (from 1 August 1928), was echoed, repeated, even if somewhat rephrased, in The Auk 45, October 1928, Notes and news, by T. S. Palmer (here, p.539).

Though, a third "Obituary. Annie Constance Meinertzhagen.", in The Ibis 70 (4): 781–783, unseen by me,

Anyone who have read the latter one?

/B

 

[l_raty]

Anyone who have read the latter one?

It (too) says "Born on 2 June, 1889".

First page : https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1474-919X.1928.tb08742.x

 

[PScofield]

Born 2 June 1889. See attached.

She died from a revolver bullet through the head whilst in the company of her husband just three months after the birth of their child

I thought this was untrue as I couldn't find Richard Randels 1928 birth, but went back and checked and it is correct. Most family trees in Ancestry don't mention Richard Randel, (not sure why but he maybe still alive). A remarkable suicide - shooting herself in the back of the head with a revolver and Richard Senior inheriting £113,000, then he gets to live with Tess Clay for the rest of his life.

Fun fact: Meinertzhagen was Beatrice Potter's nephew!

 

[Björn Bergenholtz]

Thanks guys!

And what about the (minor) contraditory claims in the Key entries of today [my bold blue]:

annae
• Annie Constance Meinertzhagen née Jackson ...
• ...

meinertzhagenae
Anne Constance Meinertzhagen née Jackson ...

To me it looks like her (First/Given) name indeed was Annie ... or?

Also noteworthy, earlier in the same journal as the OD of the African Pipit ssp. Anthus cinnamomeus annae MEINERTHAGEN 1921 (second link in post #1, alt. here), as "Anthus r. [richardi] annae", in Letters, Extracts, and Notes, below Personalia, on page 358 (here) we find the following short notice: "The Marriage of Col. Richard Meinertzhagen, D.S.O., and Miss Annie C. Jackson, which took place on March 3 last, ...".

As well, in the same volume of the Ibis we find her listed among the Honorary Lady Members of BOU (British Ornithologists' Union) as: "MEINERTZHAGEN, Mrs. ANNIE C.", with the Postal address "Swordale, Evanton, Ross-shire"
(here).

The same goes for:
• the invalid "Cisticola cisticola annae" MEINERTHAGEN 1922 (third link in post #1, alt. here), even if without any dedication, nor an explanation [only: "Collected by Miss D. Bate", but she ought to be Miss Dorothea Bate*, equally listed among the Honorary Lady Members of BOU (British Ornithologists' Union) on p. xxxi (here)], where we, as well, find the dedicatee listed as: "MEINERTZHAGEN, Mrs. ANNIE C.", now with the Postal address: 17 Kensington Park Gardens, W. 11.". Though note that this OD was presented in the second part of the same Paper (Notes on some Birds from the Near East and Tropical East Africa), as the Pipit above. Thus (in my mind), no need to think it was aimed at another Lady than Mrs Meinertzhagen herself.

To me, this far, it does look like her First Given name was "Annie" (not "Anne"), and that she indeed was born in "1889".

However, and as always, don't hesitate to prove otherwise.

Anyone who have seen any official records?

Björn

PS. And, for hat it's worth, even if her Original Birth/Baptism name actually turns out to be "Anne" (though I doubt it), in any explanation of whom she was, I would certainly insert the "Annie" version, as it was as such she became known, and it's in the latter version we find her in most texts (and in all her Obituaries).

---

*.. which ought to be Dorothea Minola Alice Bate (1879–1951), commemorated in the (Cyprus) Short-toed Tree-Creeper ssp. Certhia brachydactyla dorotheae HARTERT 1904 (here).

 

[Björn Bergenholtz]

Also note the fairly new publication:

• Pittie, A. 2023. An author bibliography of South Asian ornithology 1713–2022. Second edition (Published on 10 February 2023), pp. 1–1649 (here), where we find Mrs Meinertzhagen (on page 890) as:

Meinertzhagen, Annie Constance (née Jackson) (1889–1928; Scotland)
Ornithologist. Second wife of Col. Richard Meinertzhagen, with whom she travelled to Sikkim, Tibet, and the Himalayas (1925–1926) to collect and study birds. Her death, from a revolver bullet, is an unresolved mystery. Awards: British Ornithologists’ Union: Honorary Lady Member (1915); American Ornithologists’ Union: Corresponding Member (1919).

/B

PS. For even more info on "Annie Meinertzhagen, UK (1889-1928)" see here, incl. a Photo of her, riding a yak!