- Wilhelm Meise
Wilhelm Meise (September, 12,
1901 -August 24 ,2002 ) was a German ornithologist.Haffer, Jurgen (2003) " [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3793/is_200304/ai_n9167258 "In memoriam": Wilhelm Meise, 1901-2002] " "The Auk," 120(2): 540. (Apr 2003)] He studied at theUniversity of Berlin from 1924-1928, where he did his Ph.D. dissertation on the distribution of theCarrion Crow and theHooded Crow , and hybridization between them under the supervision of ProfessorErwin Stresemann , (1889-1972). . He also analysed taxonomic and historic relationships between theHouse Sparrow and theSpanish Sparrow in particular the status of the "Italian Sparrow ". He was curator of vertebrates at the Museum of Natural History inDresden from 1929 untilWorld War II .Meise produced the first review of
bird species new to science in 1934 at the eighthInternational Ornithological Congress (IOC), followed by an update at the ninth IOC in 1938.de icon Meise, W. (1934) "Fortschritte der ornithologischen Systematik seit 1920" "Proc. VIII Cong. Internat. Ornith." pp49-189] fr icon Meise, W. (1938) "Exposition de types d'oiseaux nouvellement décrits au Muséum de Paris" "Proc. IX Cong. Internat. Ornith." pp46-51] He spent three years in a prison camp inSiberia after the war, and joined theBerlin Zoological Museum in 1948. In 1951, he was appointed curator of ornithology at the Museum of Natural History inHamburg and professor at theUniversity of Hamburg .During the 1950s, Meise was the President of the Jordsand Club for the Protection of Seabirds at a time when such endeavours were at an early stage. He undertook an expedition to
Angola in 1955 and, during the following years, published several papers on geographical variation, speciation, and evolution of African birds.Meise produced 47 parts of Max Schönwetter's handbook "Handbuch der Oologie" between 1960 and 1992, following Schönwetter's death in 1960.de icon Schönwetter, Max; Meise, Wilhelm "Handbuch der Oologie", Akademie Verlag Berlin, 1960-1993.] The work consists of 3666 pages and presents in detail all species and subspecies whose eggs are known. According to Meise, there are 30000 - 35000 sub-species of birds, and the eggs of only half of these are known to science." [http://www.fmnh.helsinki.fi/english/zoology/vertebrates/collections/eggs.htm The Egg Collection] " Finnish Museum of Natural History. Retrieved
November 24 2007 ]Meise’s 170 publications dealt mainly with
bird s, but occasionally with the taxonomy of scorpions, spiders, lizards, snakes, and molluscs. He retired in 1972, and died aged 101 in 2002.References
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.