Anton Reichenow

Anton Reichenow (August 1, 1847 in Charlottenburg - July 6, 1941 in Hamburg) was a German ornithologist.

Reichenow was the son-in-law of Jean Cabanis, and worked at the Humboldt Museum from 1874 to 1921. He was an expert on African birds, making a collecting expedition to West Africa in 1872 and 1873, and writing Die Vögel Afrikas (1900-05). He also wrote Die Vögel der Bismarckinseln (1899). He was editor of the Journal für Ornithologie from 1894 to 1921.

A number of birds are named after him, including Reichenow's Woodpecker and Reichenow's Firefinch. His son Eduard Reichenow was a famous protozoologist.

Reichenow is known for his classification of birds into six groups, described as "shortwings, swimmers, stiltbirds, skinbills, yoketoes, and treebirds". This system was not adopted by any other ornithologists, but is used in the standard decimal library cataloging system.

References

• Beolens, Bo & Watkins, Michael (2003). Whose Bird?: Men and women commemorated in the common names of birds, Christopher Helm, London.
• Walters, Michael (2003). A Concise History of Ornithology Yale University Press ISBN 0300090730

External links

• The Birds: Handbook of Systematic Ornithology. Volume 1
• The Birds: Handbook of Systematic Ornithology. Volume 2
• The Birds of German-East-Africa (1894)
• Die Vögel Afrikas Volume 1 Volume 2 Volume 3 Atlas
• Conspectus Psittacorum