In the days when colour printing was extremely expensive, the Avicultural Society had special appeals for funds to support the appearance in Avicultural Magazine of the occasional colour plate. A well-known bird artist was then commissioned. Although the whole run of the Society’s magazines can be found online, the plates rarely see the light of day. Therefore I decided to show one, now and again, on this site. This is the 17th in the series.
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The plate was the work David Morrison Reid Henry (1919-1977) in 1952. He signed his work as D.M. Henry and was an artist favoured by the Avicultural Society for the plates published in this period.
The accompanying note was by Cecil Stanley Webb (1910-1977) described by Geoffrey Marr Vevers as ‘one of the greatest animal collectors of all time’. Webb started collecting in 1919, reaching his heyday in the 1930s and 40s (after finding himself stranded on Madagascar during the Second World War). He became Curator-Collector for the Zoological Society of London, then Curator of Mammals and Birds. He then moved to Dublin Zoo where he was Superintendent. From then until his death he lived in Kenya.
Webb describes how where in West Africa (British and French Cameroons) and how he caught these birds (the one illustrated was one he brought to London in 1947); the 'how' can best be described as 'uncomfortably'.
The Blue-shouldered Robin-Chat (Cossypha cyanocampter) across a swathe of Africa in the following countries: Cameroon; Central African Republic; Republic of Congo; Democratic Republic of Congo; Côte d'Ivoire; Equatorial Guinea; Gabon; Ghana; Guinea; Kenya; Liberia; Mali; Nigeria; Sierra Leone; South Sudan; Sudan; Tanzania;Togo; Uganda.
Avicultural Magazine Vol 58, 1952
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