It could be argued that one of the most effective forms of
education, if one has a mind to put the experience to good use, can be found
through travel (whether that be near or far matters not). My encounter in May with a White-winged
Scoter Melanitta deglandi stejnegeri
which appeared on the sea just off the Varanger Peninsular in the Arctic Circle has since my return home taken me down a
number of learning paths. One such route
led in the direction of Leonhard Stejneger, someone that until May 2016 I had
never consciously given any thought to, and if I’m honest neither had I ever
given much thought to the sub-species of White-winged Scoter.
Before moving on to Stejneger let me note that Melanitta
deglandi was used by Charles Bonaparte as the scientific
name for the nominate (first to be described) species of White-winged Scoter
which is a North American species. The
name was used by Bonaparte in 1850 to honour Côme Damien Degland (1787-1856). Degland was a director of the natural history
museum in Lille, France
and author of a two volume work on the ornithology of Europe. Stejnegeri was added to name the
Siberian sub species at a later date and thus extended the naming into what is
known as the trinomial system, which extends the binomial system when there are
known sub species
White-winged Scoter Melanitta deglandi stejnegeri
Leonard Stejneger was born in Bergen,
Norway and his education
included attendance at University in Oslo, and
as a young man he studied birds in Norway
and the Tyrol.
An interest in natural history began at a young age and by the time
Stejneger was 16 he had a printed catalogue of birds and he had acquired skills
painting in watercolour. He went on to
study law and had a very brief career as a lawyer. No doubt stemming from this experience in the
field of law, Stejneger had a deep knowledge of Latin and Greek and a number of
modern languages. Shortly after his
death in 1943 a friend, Thomas Barbour, acknowledged in an article in The Auk (Vol. 61 No2 1944), that this linguistic skill had no doubt helped his friend’s
following of nomenclature over the years.
Stejneger had worked at the Smithsonian Institute for over 60 years and was elected to the International Committee on Zoological Nomenclature in 1898.
Stejneger moved to the USA
in 1881 and in 1887 became a citizen of the USA. Within months of his arrival in the USA
Spencer Fullerton Baird of the Smithsonian Institute found him a position with
the Signal Corps. Baird was noted for
his encouragement of young naturalists and ornithologists and ensured that they
found places on various expeditions, and in turn they would provide specimens
and information for the Smithsonian Institute.
In 1882 Stejneger was commissioned by Baird to go to Bering Island
where Georg Steller had in the previous century made his observations and
descriptions of wildlife including Steller’s Sea Cow. Steller’s Eider, Spectacled Cormorant, Sea
Otter and Fur Seal where also seen during these explorations. For eighteen months Stejneger travelled in
Steller’s footsteps and on his return he was appointed Assistant Curator of
Birds at the institute, of course by the time of this trip the Sea Cow had long
been extinct and the Spectacled Cormorant more recently so. Stejneger completed Bulletin 29 of the U S
National Museum on the results of his ornithological explorations of the Commander Islands,
which take their name from Commander Vitus Bering, and of which Bering Island
is a part, and Kamchatka in which 400 species
are described or noted. In 1889 Stejneger
took charge of the reptile and amphibian section of the Smithsonian Institute
and eventually wrote over 400 scientific papers on these subjects as well as
birds of Japan and the
northern Pacific Islands.
Over the years Stejneger made several trips to Alaska during which he was involved in study of the Fur
Seals which were now very valuable business to the United States of America. It is said that in a very short time such
trade had covered any costs involved in the purchase of Alaska
from Russia. During his travels Stejneger continued to
collect much information concerning Georg Steller which finally resulted in a
comprehensive biography of Steller, published in 1936, a few years before
Stejneger died at the age of 91. The
biography makes much use of Russian and German records, again showing that the
linguistic skills in translation were again put to good use. In the article in the Auk, mentioned above,
his friend Barbour notes that the biography was praised by peers of Stejneger,
but the author had been saddened by the fact that it had not been widely read
by the general public. Stejneger
dedicated the book to Baird and in the preface acknowledges Baird’s role in
sending him to Bering Island and notes how he named the highest mountain on the
island Mount Steller and named a
rocky arch through which Steller must have often walked Steller’s Triumphal Arch. I managed quite easily to track down a copy
of the biography which was reprinted in 1970 and strongly recommend it for
reading by anyone interested in natural history and the early exploration of
areas such as Lake Baikal, Kamchatka, Bering Island and Alaska by Steller and
Bering (available on Amazon). Unlike
Stejneger, whom Barbour describes as a very talented artist, Steller for all
his qualities as a botanist and naturalist, was anything but skilled at art,
but fortunately he had his own artists allocated to him on his travels. These travels of course ended tragically for
Steller, Bering and many of the ships crew that accompanied them.
Feather from Steller's Sea Eagle from my collection.
Baird died in 1887 at which time Stejneger was working
through the Hawaiian collection of his fellow Norwegian, Valdemar Knudsen. In tribute to Baird, Stejneger named one of
the collection Oreomyotis bairdi,
which has the common name of Kauai Honeycreeper. Unlike a high percentage of honeycreepers
that had been found in Hawaii
this species is still extant, but critically endangered. (The plight of the Honeycreepers does not
make for happy reading). At another time
he also honoured one of the United States giants of ornithology, Robert Ridgway
for whom at the time he worked as assistant at the Smithsonian, by creating the
genus Ridgwayia for the species more commonly known as Aztec
Thrush. I’ve also found that Stejneger
has links with our local ornithologist Henry Baker Tristram, born in the village of Eglingham,
Northumberland, a founder member of the BOU and perhaps best known for his
naturalist travels in the Middle East. This link concerns a petrel found in Japan
by Lt. G Gunn of the royal Navy, and which was later sent to Tristram who sent
it on to Stejneger. In an unpublished
paper Stejneger referred to this species as Oceanodroma tristrami and
this name was later to become the scientific name when applied in a published
paper by Osbert Salvin. Incidentally
there is to be a talk concerning the ornithology of Henry Baker Tristram at the
Natural History Society of Northumbria on Friday 17th March 2017.
Stejneger is himself honoured in a number of species names
including birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians and fish. I’ve been unable to ascertain the true
number, although an internet site mentions 2 mammals, 16 reptiles and 11
birds. I believe that may well be an
under estimate and in any event did not include fish and amphibians. Stejneger’s Petrel Pterodroma longiirostris
is one such species, and in this case it is the common name which is
recognised. It is here that confusion
can occur as I found that Tristram’s Petrel Oceanodroma tristrami,
mentioned above, has also been known as Stejneger’s Storm Petrel!
Whilst I don’t intend to offer a long confusing list of
species, it is worth considering some that bear the Stejneger name. In 1883 Stejneger collected a beach worn
skull on the coast of Bering Island and this
was later in 1885 examined by Fredrick W True.
The scientific name given to the species was Mesoploden stejnegeri
more commonly known as Stejneger’s Beaked Whale. Perhaps a more interesting species, at least
to British bird-watchers is Saxicola maurus stejnegeri, a sub
species found in Britain in 2012 and after DNA analysis confirmed to be the sub
species commonly known as Stejneger’s (Siberian) Stonechat. I mentioned Hawaiian Honeycreepers above, and
one now extinct species is known as Hemignathus stejnegeri. Then there are Mindanao Horned Frog Mogophys
stejnegeri, Stejneger’s Pit Viper Trimeresurus stejnegeri, both Asian
species, and Scaphognathhops stejnegeri, a fish from South
East Asia, and so the list goes on.
