Louis Adulphe Delegorgue (13 November 1814 – 30 May 1850) was a French explorer, hunter and naturalist who travelled in southern Africa in the 1840s and wrote about the region. Hunt map Delegorgue

Delegorgue was born to a farmer and mayor of

Courcelles Courcelles may refer to: Places Belgium * Courcelles, Belgium, a municipality located in the province of Hainaut Canada * Courcelles-Saint-Évariste, a municipality France * Courcelles, Charente-Maritime * Courcelles, Doubs * Courcelles, Meur ...

, Adulphe and his wife Marie Desfontaine. His parents died when he was very young and he was raised by his grandfather Joseph, a councillor at the court of

Douai Douai (, , ,; pcd, Doï; nl, Dowaai; formerly spelled Douay or Doway in English) is a city in the Nord département in northern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department. Located on the river Scarpe some from Lille and from Arras, D ...

. At the age of 16 he began to sail around Europe, northern Africa and the Antilles. At the age of 23, inspired by the writings of

Le Vaillant Le Vaillant (French: ''The Valiant'') (died 4 June 1916) was a pigeon used by the French Army in the First World War. The bird was the last held at Fort Vaux before it was overrun in the Battle of Verdun. Le Vaillant carried a message from the f ...

, he sailed to the

Cape of Good Hope The Cape of Good Hope ( af, Kaap die Goeie Hoop ) ;''Kaap'' in isolation: pt, Cabo da Boa Esperança is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula in South Africa. A common misconception is that the Cape of Good Hope is t ...

and then travelled through southern Africa along with J.A. Wahlberg and F.C.C. Krauss aboard the ''Mazeppa''. He made trips to southern Africa again in 1841 and in 1842, hunting and collecting artefacts for the museums in Paris and Douai. He hunted hippos, elephants, lions and buffalo and began to write about his adventures in a two volume book published in 1847. The second volume included a glossary of the Zulu language. He travelled again in 1850 to West Africa but died of malaria at sea on ship and was

buried at sea Burial at sea is the disposal of human remains in the ocean, normally from a ship or boat. It is regularly performed by navies, and is done by private citizens in many countries. Burial-at-sea services are conducted at many different location ...

. Several species have been named from the specimens he collected including the birds ''

Columba delegorguei The eastern bronze-naped pigeon (''Columba delegorguei'') is a species of bird in the family Columbidae. It is found in Angola, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. It is part of the ''Turt ...

'', '' Coturnix delegorguei'' and the bug ''Encosternum delegorguei.''

References

External links

Biographical Database of Southern African Science
*''Voyage dans l'Afrique australe'' (1847
Volume IVolume II
{{DEFAULTSORT:Delegorgue, Adulphe category:French naturalists 1814 births 1850 deaths