The forgotten founder of ornithology

Abstract

The Wonderful Mr Willughby: The First True Ornithologist Tim Birkhead Bloomsbury (2018) Francis Willughby was a wide-ranging virtuoso in a virtuosic age. Remembered for a pioneering study of bird classification, the seventeenth-century natural historian pursued interests in entomology, botany, linguistics, games and chance, and the reform of biological classification. That he is not better known may be put down to his death at 36. In The Wonderful Mr Willughby, ornithologist Tim Birkhead brings his creative energies and contributions to life. Born in England in 1635, the only son in an established family of the gentry, Willughby inherited estates in Warwickshire and Nottinghamshire. At the University of Cambridge, where polite young men usually acquired a smattering of culture and influential connections, he took a different path — into scientific discovery. He dived into the “new sciences”, reading the works of Galileo Galilei, Francis Bacon and René Descartes. And he took copious notes, organized by topic, in his commonplace book — the database of the era. A sociable man, Willughby found friends who spurred him on. As Birkhead relates, the most important was Trinity College fellow John Ray. Ray encouraged Willughby’s interests in mathematics and took him botanizing. It was during these jaunts that Willughby observed puzzling transformations in caterpillars that sparked entomological discoveries. In the late 1650s, the pair embarked on a programme of “chymical” experimentation. “Chymistry”, as practised by Robert Boyle and other natural philosophers, was then evolving from medieval alchemy to modern chemistry. It sought the transmutation of base metals into gold even as it was harnessed for applications such as weapons manufacture. Eventually, Willughby and Ray criss-crossed England and Wales on their birding and plant-hunting expeditions. Francis Willughby, painted by Gerard Soest in 1657–60. Credit: Univ. Nottingham