Rostratula Australis
The Australian painted-snipe (''Rostratula australis'') is a medium-sized, long-billed, distinctively patterned wader. Taxonomy The distinctiveness of the Australian painted-snipe was recognised by John Gould in 1838 when he described and named it ''Rostratula australis''. However, it was subsequently lumped with the greater painted-snipe ''Rostratula benghalensis''. More recently it has been shown that the differences between these taxa warrant recognition at the species level. Compared with the greater painted-snipe, the Australian painted-snipe: * has a longer wing, shorter bill and shorter tarsus * has a chocolate brown, rather than rufous, head and neck in the female * has round, rather than flat and visually barred, spots on the tail (female) and upper wing-coverts (male) Description The head, neck and upper breast is chocolate brown (in the male, dark grey with a buff median stripe on the crown), fading to rufous in the centre of the hindneck and merging to dark, barred ...
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John Gould
John Gould (; 14 September 1804 – 3 February 1881) was an English ornithologist. He published a number of monographs on birds, illustrated by plates produced by his wife, Elizabeth Gould, and several other artists, including Edward Lear, Henry Constantine Richter, Joseph Wolf and William Matthew Hart. He has been considered the father of bird study in Australia and the Gould League in Australia is named after him. His identification of the birds now nicknamed "Darwin's finches" played a role in the inception of Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection. Gould's work is referenced in Charles Darwin's book, ''On the Origin of Species''. Early life Gould was born in Lyme Regis, the first son of a gardener. Both father and son probably had little education. After working on Dowager Lady Poulett's glass house, his father obtained a position on an estate near Guildford, Surrey, and then in 1818, Gould Snr became foreman in the Royal Gardens of Windsor. Gould then be ...
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