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 20th in the series.
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The artist for this plate was Chloe Elizabeth Talbot Kelly (born 1927) who went on to illustrate a number of field guides. Her paintings of birds appear in art sales. She began painting in 1945 at the Natural History Museum in London.
The article accompanying the plate was written by Alan Reece Longhurst (1925-2023). He was a well-known oceanographer and expert on plankton communities who spent a short time working in fisheries in New Zealand. He was born in Plymouth and after four years in the army he returned to London and university life. He graduated in entomology and then proceeded to a PhD on the ecology of notostracans. Fisheries research in West Africa then followed (with the short period in New Zealand in the middle). Spells in Plymouth and the USA were followed by a career in Canada. He became Director-General of the Bedford Institute of Oceanography in Nova Scotia.
The Grey-headed Kingfisher (Halcyon leucocephala) is widely distributed in Africa. Like many kingfishers it does not live up to its name. It is terrestrial, never diving for aquatic prey, feeding on Insects, other invertebrates, mice; lizards, frogs etc.. It does dive into water but only to bathe.
Avicultural Magazine 66, 1960
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