Friedrich Heinrich, Freiherr von Kittlitz (16 February 1799 – 10 April 1874) was a Prussian artist, naval officer, explorer and naturalist. He was a descendant of a family of old Prussian nobility ("Freiherr" meaning "independent lord" - ranking with a baron). He collected specimens and made illustrations on major expeditions and wrote a few books on his travels. Several species were described on the basis of specimens collected by him and a few are named after him including

Kittlitz's plover Kittlitz's plover (''Charadrius pecuarius'') is a small shorebird (35-40 g) in the family Charadriidae that breeds near coastal and inland saltmarshes, sandy or muddy riverbanks or alkaline grasslands with short vegetation. It is native to much o ...

Life and work

Kittlitz was born in Breslau to Prussian Captain Friedrich (1769-1825) and Henriette Ehrenfried von Diebitsch (1771-1835). He went to grammar school in Oels and joined his father's battalion as a volunteer in 1813. He became a second lieutenant in the 16th Silesian Infantry Regiment and saw action at Glogau. He went to Paris in 1815 and was garrisoned in Mainz when the Landwehr regiments were dissolved. It was here that he became interested in nature after meeting

Eduard Rüppell Wilhelm Peter Eduard Simon Rüppell (20 November 1794 – 10 December 1884) was a German Natural history, naturalist and List of explorers, explorer. Rüppell is occasionally transliterated to "Rueppell" for the English alphabet, due to german ort ...

. Through the influence of his maternal uncle

Hans Karl von Diebitsch Hans Karl Friedrich Anton Graf von Diebitsch und Narten (russian: Ива́н Ива́нович Ди́бич-Забалка́нский, tr. ; 13 May 1785 – 10 June 1831) was a German-born soldier serving as Russian field marshal. Career ...

, field marshal in Russia, that he joined the

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

n corvette ''Senjawin'' on a circumnavigational expedition between 1826 and 1829 under the leadership of Captain

Fyodor Petrovich Litke Fyodor, Fedor (russian: Фёдор) or Feodor is the Russian form of the name "Theodore" meaning “God’s Gift”. Fedora () is the feminine form. Fyodor and Fedor are two English transliterations of the same Russian name. It may refer to: Giv ...

(1797-1882). He travelled along with Prince Karl of Prussia to St. Petersburg and the expedition set sail on September 1. He made large collections on this expedition for the museum of the

Imperial Academy of Sciences The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS; russian: Росси́йская акаде́мия нау́к (РАН) ''Rossíyskaya akadémiya naúk'') consists of the national academy of Russia; a network of scientific research institutes from across t ...

in St. Petersburg with 754 specimens of 314 bird species, including species that subsequently became extinct. Among them are the Micronesian species,

Kosrae crake The Kosrae crake or Kusaie Island crake (''Zapornia monasa''), sometimes also stated as Kittlitz's rail, is an extinct bird from the family Rallidae. It occurred on the island of Kosrae and perhaps on Pohnpei, Ponape in the south-western Pacific ...

(''Porzana monasa'') and

Kosrae starling The Kosrae starling, also known as Kosrae Island starling, and formerly as Kusaie Mountain starling, (''Aplonis corvina'') is an extinct bird from the family of starlings (Sturnidae). It was endemic to the montane forests on the island of Kosrae ...

(''Aplonis corvina'') which are known only from his specimens. He published ''Twenty-four Views of the Vegetation of the Coasts and Islands of the Pacific'' (1844). Kittlitz travelled to North Africa in 1831 with his friend

, but had to return to Germany due to poor health. It was during his time in Egypt whilst waiting for a boat that he collected specimens of the bird which became known as

. Kittlitz's murrelet,

Kittlitz's rail The Kosrae crake or Kusaie Island crake (''Zapornia monasa''), sometimes also stated as Kittlitz's rail, is an extinct bird from the family Rallidae. It occurred on the island of Kosrae and perhaps on Ponape in the south-western Pacific which bel ...

Kittlitz's thrush The Bonin thrush (''Zoothera terrestris''), also known as Kittlitz's thrush or the Bonin Islands thrush, is an extinct species of Asian thrush. It is sometimes separated as the only species of the genus ''Cichlopasser''. The only place where this ...

and Kittlitz's plover are all named for him. Valparaiso_Kittlitz.jpg, Life in Valparaiso, a sketch by Kittlitz Plate_2_Kittlitz.jpg,

Steller's sea eagle Steller's sea eagle (''Haliaeetus pelagicus''), also known as Pacific sea eagle or white-shouldered eagle, is a very large diurnal bird of prey in the family Accipitridae. It was described first by Peter Simon Pallas in 1811. No subspecies are r ...

by Kittlitz

Works

*''Kupfertafeln zur Naturgeschichte der Vögel'', Frankfurt 1832
1. Heft
*'' 24 Vegetationsansichten von den Küstenländern und Inseln des Stillen Ozeans'', Wiesbaden 1845–1852 *''Vegetationsansichten aus den westlichen Sudeten'', Frankfurt 1854 *''Naturszenen aus Kamtschatka'' *''Bilder vom Stillen Ozean'' *''Denkwürdigkeiten einer Reise nach dem russischen Amerika, nach Mikronesien und durch Kamtschatka'', Gotha 1858
Band 1Band 2
*''Psychologische Grundlage für eine neue Philosophie der Kunst'', Berlin 1863 *''Schlußfolgerungen von der Seele des Menschen auf die Weltseele'', Mainz 1873 *''Ornithologisches Tagebuch. Handschrift mit Aquarellmalereien. 4 Bände'' (1816-1823).Wissenschaftliche Stadtbibliothek Mainz, Sammlung Moyat, Sign.: Moyat 658

References

External links

Biography in German with portrait
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kittlitz, Heinrich Von 1799 births 1874 deaths German ornithologists 19th-century German zoologists 19th-century German botanists Barons of Germany

Life and work

Works

See also

References

External links