Jean Theodore Delacour

Jean Theodore Delacour a ornithologist American of origin French E, born the September 26th 1890 with Paris and dead the November 5th 1985 with Los Angeles.

Biography

It passes its youth to Villers-Bretonneux (Somme) in the property of his parents. It develops to with it a great love for the plants and the animals. His/her father builds large birdcages to him where, Jean raises as of his more young age, of many species (1 300 says one).

At that time, he does not seek to collect skins, as many ornithologists of its time do it, or to carry out observations on the ground. Its passion is the breeding of the animals, practices very widespread as the audience testifies some to the Société of acclimatization.

It obtains a title of doctor at the university of Lille when the First World War bursts. His/her brother dies at the time of a Bombardement and its menageries are completely destroyed.

It settles then with the castle of Clères in Normandy where it arranges a Zoological gardens in 1920. It quickly becomes the first private park and shelters 3.000 individuals representing 500 different species. It often has several couples of the rarest species. To find the specimens, it carries out many voyages. Of 1922 to the war, it will make a forwarding thus per annum. It explores particularly the Indo-China but also Madagascar. The collections which it constitutes are immense: 30.000 birds and 8.000 mammals distributed with Paris, London and New York. It makes appear in 1931 the Birds of French Indo-China which will become a lasting reference book of many years.

Dissatisfied of the ornithological reviews of its time, it founds in 1920 the review the Bird which it directs until the Second world war.

But the castle of Clères burns completely the February 15th 1939 for unknown reasons. Little time after, the war is declared. It goes then to New York in December 1940 and is engaged with the Zoo of Bronx of the city. Its functions leave him enough time so that it can work with the American Museum off Natural History of New York. It carries out taxinomic monographs then where it revises some tax like the Pycnonotidae, the Estrildidae, the Nectariniidae and the Anatidae. For the latter, which he knows already well through his experiment of stockbreeder, he reconsiders the whole of their classification in a monograph which appears in 1945. He obtains American nationality in 1946.

In collaboration with Ernst Mayr (1904-2005), it makes appear Birds off the Filipino in 1945 then, only, Birds off Malaysia in 1947.

In 1952, it obtains the direction of the Natural history museum of history, science and art of the county of Los Angeles. Start a new life then. He particularly encourages the breeding of the birds and the Horticulture in the south of the California. Parallel to its activities, it continues its scientific research and publishes The Pheasants off the World (1951), Wild Pigeons and Doves (1959), The Waterfowl off the World (in four volumes, 1951-1964) and, with Dean Amadon (1912-2003), Curassows and Related Birds (1973).

It takes its retirement in 1960 and then undertakes to restore the park of Clères. In 1966, it makes appear its autobiography, The Living Air . The same year, it offers to the national Muséum natural history of Paris, its field. This one is directed, jointly with him, by Pierre Ciarpaglini (1933-). In 1978, Delacour bequeaths the field definitively and is withdrawn.

All its life, it militates for the conservation of the environment. It is one of the creators of the International Council for Bird Preservation (ICBP) and was member of the Académie of Rouen as from 1934. Delacour jointly receives with Ernst Mayr the Médaille Elliott Coues in 1977 decreed by the American Ornithologists' Union. He dies of an heart attack.

Appendices

List partial of the publications

1914 : Report of the ornithological Exposure of Liege. Bull. Plowshare zool. acclimatization 61: 285-287.
1914: Sunbirds in captivity. Bull. Plowshare zool. acclimatization 61: 511-513.
1914: Reproduction in France of Touraco de Buffon. Bull. Plowshare zool. acclimatization 61: 579-580.
1915: Observations on some Colombidés exotics held in captivity. Bull. Plowshare zool. acclimatization 62: 40-43.
1916: Notes on the breedings of Villers-Bretonneux in 1915. Bull. Plowshare zool. acclimatization 63: 313-314.
1916: Touraco de Buffon. Bull. Plowshare zool. acclimatization 63: 340-352.
1916: Birds of Villers-Bretonneux in 1916. Bull. Plowshare zool. acclimatization 63: 445-449.
1916: The Ornithological park of Villers-Bretonneux close to Amiens. rev. france Orn. 4: 249-252, 265-268, 286-290.
1917: Rackets of Motmot. Bull. Plowshare zool. acclimatization 64: 64.
1917: Giant Touraco ( Corytheola cristata ). Bull. Plowshare zool. acclimatization 64: 354.
1917: Cold resistance of the exotic birds during the winter 1917. Bull. Plowshare zool. acclimatization 64: 309-312.
1917: Funingo of Seychelles, or roughcast Colomgalle. Bull. Plowshare zool. acclimatization 64: 416-420.
1918: Crossing of Pigeons. Bull. Plowshare zool. acclimatization 65: 6-7.
1918: Notes of breeding in 1917. Bull. Plowshare zool. acclimatization 65: 97-99.
1920: Hummingbirds in captivity. the Bird 1: 6-11, 35-38.
1920: The Pheasant Mikado Syrmaticus Mikado (Ogilvie-Grant). the Bird 1: 49-51.
1920: Notes on some collections of live birds in England. the Bird 1: 69-73.
1920: The yellow Oriole of Java ( Old Oriolus maculatus .). the Bird 1: 113.
1920: The Cockatoo Gang-Gang Callocephalon galeatum (Lath.). the Bird 1: 161-162, 177-180.
1920: A large collection of Parakeets and Parrots in England. the Bird 1: 202-206.
1920: Birds of Géry. the Bird 1: 209-210.
1921: The collection of Caudebec-The-Tweed birds (the Seine-Inf.). the Bird 2: 8-12.
1921: The Bearded ones. the Bird 2: 20-22.
1921: Rollier with long tail ( Coracias caudatus L.). the Bird 2: 69-71.
1921: Cranes, birds of park. the Bird 2: 87-92.
1921: The Starling amethyst ( Pholidauges verreauxi , Scrap-metal). the Bird 2: 121-123.
1921: A collection of birds in Italy. the Bird 2: 129-130.
1921: My birds of park in 1921. the Bird 2: 170-175.
1921: Note on the food of Trichoglosses. the Bird 2: 188-190.
1922: Bronzed Stourne, Lamprocorax metallica (Temm.). the Bird 3: 1-2.
1922: Eperonnier chinquis, Polyplectron chinquis (S. Müll.). the Bird 3: 33-35.
1922: An amateur of birds in tropical America. the Bird 3: 121-127, 153-157, 169-173, 185-186, 201-212, 225-226, 226-227, 227-230, 230-232, 242-247, 247-253.
1922: Liothrix d' Astley, Liothrix astleyi Delacour. the Bird 3: 194-196.
1922: The Barnacle with gray head and its congeneric, Chloephaga poliocephala , Gray. the Bird 3: 232-233.
1922: Notes on the new birds and the breedings of Clères in 1922. the Bird 3: 256-259.
1923: Birds of Woburn. the Bird 4: 37-39.
1923: Birds of Boyers House. the Bird 4: 93-97.
1923: A collection of Gallinacés in Italy. the Bird 4: 185-188.
1923: The collection of Birds of Mr. Paul Vendran, in Montélimar (Drome). the Bird 4: 203-207.
1923: Breeding of Martin with black wings, Graculipica will melanoptera (Daud.). the Bird 4: 235-237.
1923: Birds of Clères in 1923. the Bird 4: 316-320.
1924: Breeding of the widowed Dendrocygne, Dendrocygna viduata (L.). the Bird 5: 16-20.
1924: Ornithological notes of Asia. the Bird 5: 43-52, 102-106.
1924: Some birds of Abyssinie. the Bird 5: 135-138.
1924: Agamis. the Bird 5: 182-186.
1924: In Indo-China. the Bird 5: 193-196, 226-228, 228-230, 248-250, 283-285.
1924: Note on some birds of Clères in 1923. the Bird 5: 207-210.
1924: Birds of Rocheplatte. the Bird 5: 285-287.
1924: Birdcages of Dr. C. Arnault. the Bird 5: 307-309.
1925: birds. Their maintenance, their breeding. Volume I: Sparrows. Plowshare nat. of acclimatization of France, XII + 384 pages, 49 boards, including 14 colors (in collaboration with Marcel Legendre).
1925: A collection of birds from Europe to Paris. the Bird 6: 22-25.
1925: Paroare with black cheeks in Venezuela. the Bird 6: 77-79.
1925: Birds of Clères. the Bird 6: 104-112.
1925: In memory of Hubert D. Astley. the Bird 6: 158-159.
1925: Caudebec-the-Tweed Birds. the Bird 6: 166-169, 199.
1925: Notes of Spain and the South-west of France. the Bird 6: 170-173.
1925: Some words on ornithological forwardings of research. the Bird 6: 213-215.
1925: Gooilust. the Bird 6: 219-221.
1925: Notes on the corrugated Parakeets. the Bird 6: 221-223.
1925: Brinsop Runs in May 1925. the Bird 6: 228-231.
1925: The Crane with black neck, Megalornis nigricollis (Prjevalsky). the Bird 6: 233-236.
1925: Reproduction in captivity of Pheasant of Edwards and Imperial Pheasant, Hierophasis edwardsi (Oust.) and H. imperialis LED. and Jab. the Bird 6: 248-251.
1925: My breedings in 1925. the Bird 6: 279-287.
1925: The Dove with gray cap, Gallicolumba rufescens (Old.). the Bird 6: 290-293.
1925: Breeding of Duck with yellow nozzle of Abyssinie ( Anas undulata rueppelli , Blyth). the Bird 6: 296-297.
1925: Breeding with the hand of a Cariama young person. the Bird 6: 318-321.
1926: The striated Rail, Hypotoenidia striata (L.). the Bird 7: 90-91.
1926: Birdcages of Mr. P. Jabouille in Hué. the Bird 7: 119-122.
1926: Birds of Foxwarren. the Bird 7: 172-176.
1926: In Tranninh. the Bird 7: 181-187.
1926: Some collections of live birds in the United States. the Bird 7: 197-208.
1926: Birds in Japan. the Bird 7: 245-258, 280-289, 309-324, 350-358.
1926: Birds of Clères in 1926. the Bird 7: 358-362.
1926: A collection of birds with Sfax (Tunisia). the Bird 7: 377-379.
1927: Pirolle with yellow belly ( Cissa hypoleuca Gigl. and Salvad.). the Bird 8: 74-76.
1927: The Thrush-Geai with brown cheeks Dryonastes lugens Oustalet. the Bird 8: 221-222.
1927: Notes on some hybrids. the Bird 8: 276-284.
1927: An egg of Rheinardte in France. the Bird 8: 288.
1927: Notes on the Birds of Clères. the Bird 8: 312-317.
1927: Notes on the Caudebec-The-Tweed Birds. the Bird 8: 317-319.
1927: Notes of Foxwarren. the Bird 8: 324-328.
1928: birds. Their maintenance, their breeding. Volume II: Coraciiformes, raptors, palmipèdes. Plowshare nat. of acclimatization of France, 288 pages, 49 boards, including 13 colors (in collaboration with Marcel Legendre).
1928: The terrestrial Cuckoo of Renauld ( Carpococcyx renauldi Oust.). the Bird 9: 10-13.
1928: A collection of palmipèdes alive in California. the Bird 9: 22-29.
1928: Notes of the Far East. the Bird 9: 116-128, 147-153, 167-172.
1928: Birds of Hawaiian Islands. the Bird 9: 183-190, 210-221, 242-251.
1928: Roulroul ( Rollulus roulroul ). the Bird 9: 201-206.
1928: Japanese thrushes. the Bird 9: 229-231.
1928: Breeding of Duck with nozzle zone ( Anas zonorhyncha ). the Bird 9: 232.
1928: The fourth forwarding in Indo-China. the Bird 9: 257-269.
1928: Birds of Foxwarren in 1928. the Bird 9: 273-275.
1928: A visit with the birdcages of Doctor C. Arnault. the Bird 9: 276-279.
1928: Nandou of Darwin. the Bird 9: 280-284.
1931: Birds of French Indo-China (4 flights)
1932: birds. Their maintenance, their breeding. Volume III: Waders, birds of sea, pigeons, gallinacés, runners. Plowshare nat. of acclimatization of France, 290 pages, 44 boards, including 8 colors (in collaboration with Marcel Legendre).
1943: With revision off the subfamily Estrildinae off the family Ploceidae. Zoologica 28 : 69-86.
1944: With revision off the family Nectariniidae (sunbirds). Zoologica 29 : 17-38.
1945: with Ernst Mayr (1904-2005), Birds off the Filipino
1947: Birds off Malaysia
1951: The Pheasants off the World
1951-1964: The Waterfowl off the World (4 flights)
1959: Wild Pigeons and Doves
1966: The Living room Air: The Memoirs off year Ornithologist (autobiography)
1973: with Dean Amadon (1912-2003), Curassows and Related Birds .

New described species

Liothrix d' Astley reddish Liothrix astleyi
Grèbe or Grèbe de Delacour Tachybaptus rufolavatus (Delacour, 1932)
Pope of Manila Erythrura viridifacies (Hachisuka & Delacour, 1937)
Pheasant Imperial Hierophasis imperialis Delacour & Jabouille

References

Ernst Mayr (1986) In Memoriam: Jean (Theodore) Delacour. The Auk , 103 : 603-605 - numerical version.
Rene Ronsil (1948) French ornithological Bibliography. Volume I. Bibliography . Paul Lechevalier, Paris, 534 p.

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