François Victor Masséna, 3rd Prince of

Essling Essling
Essling entry in the Viennese government's history wiki (German) () is part of

and 3rd Duke of Rivoli (born 2 April 1799 in Antibes, died 16 April 1863) was an amateur ornithologist. He was the youngest of four children of

André Masséna André Masséna, Prince of Essling, Duke of Rivoli (born Andrea Massena; 6 May 1758 – 4 April 1817) was a French military commander during the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars.Donald D. Horward, ed., trans, annotated, The Fre ...

, 2nd Prince of Essling and Anne Marie Rosalie Lamare. His siblings were Victoire Thècle Masséna, Marie Anne Elisabeth Masséna and Jacques Prosper Masséna. Masséna accumulated a large bird collection of 12,500 specimens, which he sold to Dr.

Thomas Bellerby Wilson Thomas Bellerby Wilson (1807–1865) was an American naturalist. Wilson was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and educated first at a Quaker school there, then in Darlington, England, and then at the University of Paris, France and Trinity Coll ...

in 1846. Wilson gave the collection to the

Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, formerly the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, is the oldest natural science research institution and museum in the Americas. It was founded in 1812, by many of the leading natura ...

. Massena described a number of new parrots with his nephew Charles de Souancé, including the

green-cheeked parakeet The green-cheeked parakeet or green-cheeked conure (''Pyrrhura molinae'') is a small parrot of the genus ''Pyrrhura'', which is part of a long-tailed group of the New World parrot subfamily Arinae. The term ''conure'' is often used for this par ...

. The slaty-tailed trogon,

crimson-mantled woodpecker The crimson-mantled woodpecker (''Colaptes rivolii'') is a species of bird in subfamily Picinae of the woodpecker family Picidae. It is found in Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela. Taxonomy and systematics The crimson-mantled woo ...

and Rivoli's hummingbird were all named in his honor. In 1823 he married Anna Massena, Duchess of Rivoli and they had four children. Anna's hummingbird was named in her honor by fellow ornithologist

René Primevère Lesson René ('' born again'' or ''reborn'' in French) is a common first name in French-speaking, Spanish-speaking, and German-speaking countries. It derives from the Latin name Renatus. René is the masculine form of the name ( Renée being the femin ...

References

1799 births 1863 deaths French ornithologists Dukes of Rivoli {{France-zoologist-stub Princes of Essling