Gouldian Finches and Guillemots. H.N. 'Mick' Southern

Sometimes when you are reading up on a subject a surprise awaits. You find that somebody you associate with another field has published in the field you have become interested in. One such recent case was my post on recent research that pinpoints the genetic difference in head colour of the Gouldian Finch. I did not know that the ecologist H.N. ‘Mick’ Southern had worked on that problem but there it was, a paper in the Journal of Genetics in 1945, Polymorphism in Poephila gouldiae Gould. I then learned from his obituaries that he was interested in polymorphism in birds, especially that in the Common Guillemot (Uria aalge) where the ‘bridled’ morph exists alongside the ‘normal’ morph but in increasing frequency the further north in the geographical range of this species.

Henry Neville Southern (1908-1986) was a member of Charles Elton’s Bureau of Animal Population at Oxford. He graduated twice, first in classics, then after a spell in publishing in zoology. As an undergraduate the first time round he had a book published on bird photography. An ecologist who was claimed by the ornithologists as one of their own and by mammalogists as of their tribe he was particularly well known for his long-term studies on wood-mice and on one of their major predators, the Tawny Owl. He edited and wrote a great deal of The Handbook of British Mammals published in 1964 by Blackwells.

Never having moved in ecological or Oxford zoology circles (‘a place best avoided’ was the advice of my PhD supervisor) I did meet ‘Mick’ Southern once. He, John Perry and I were at an old Zoological Club dinner in the 1970s. ‘Mick’ and John were wartime colleagues at the Bureau of Animal Population, when the emphasis was on the control of mammalian (rats, mice, rabbits) and avian (Wood Pigeon, House Sparrow, Rook) pests which were endangering British food supplies and the crews of additional ships needed to bring food by sea through U-boat infested waters.

Photographs of Bridled and 'Ordinary' Common Guillemots

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and the red-headed morph of the Gouldian Finch

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