by Tim Birkhead
I went to check Pierre Belon’s encyclopaedia, published over a century before the Ornithology, but was confused, for it was far from obvious that the bird Belon called the Boudree was a honey-buzzard. I consulted colleagues who were better able than I to read and interpret Belon’s sixteenth-century French text, and after much hesitation, deviation and repetition by Belon, it became clear that while he must have seen honey-buzzards, the description in his book is actually a muddled mix of honey-buzzard and common buzzard features. Newton’s claim was not valid.28
The honey-buzzard’s current official name is the ‘European honey-buzzard’ and was adopted, presumably, to distinguish it from the ‘Oriental honey-buzzard’ – a separate, closely related species that occurs in eastern Asia.
But ‘European honey-buzzard’ may be the most inappropriately named of all birds. As already noted, it doesn’t eat honey. ‘European’ is wrong, too, for the species breeds across Eurasia and winters in Africa. It is just possible that ‘buzzard’ may also be inappropriate, since recent molecular studies suggest that rather than being a close relative of the common buzzard, as is widely assumed from its appearance, it may be more closely related to some of the tropical kites.
Time for a change then. Time to abandon ‘honey’ and ‘European’, but perhaps not quite time to shrug off the ‘buzzard’ – the molecular studies are still struggling for clarity here. I think we should rename this species ‘Willughby’s buzzard’. It is, after all, rather odd that Willughby, who is best known as an ornithologist, should have a bee and a fish named after him – but no bird.
Changing the common names of birds is not something one should do lightly, but in this case it seems entirely justified. The present name is wrong, and Willughby made an outstanding contribution to ornithology. He deserves to be remembered by a link to the bird he discovered.29
Let us celebrate Willughby’s life and achievements by according him this additional twenty-first-century accolade: Willughby’s buzzard.
Acknowledgements
First and foremost, I wish to thank the Middleton family: the late Lord and Lady Middleton, their son, Michael Willoughby, 13th Baron Middleton, and his son and daughter-in-law, James and Cara Willoughby, for their generosity, help and encouragement throughout the Willughby project.
Writing is a solitary occupation, but the research one does before that can be wonderfully sociable. The Willughby Project, funded by an International Network Grant from the Leverhulme Trust, to whom I’m extremely grateful, proved to be just that. This volume would not have been possible, nor half so much fun, without the extraordinary contributions made by the members of the Network: Isabelle Charmantier, David Cram, Meghan Doherty, Mark Greengrass, Daisy Hildyard, Dorothy Johnston, Sachiko Kusukawa, Brian Ogilvie, William Poole, Christopher Preston, Anna-Marie Roos, Richard Serjeantson, Paul Smith and Benjamin Wardhaugh. Our two meetings, deep in the heart of rural Derbyshire in April 2012 and March 2014 respectively, were among the most exhilarating of my academic career. I am grateful to my Willughby colleagues for helping to create the most extraordinarily stimulating project and I feel immensely privileged to have worked with them. I thank them all for answering my questions, but Isabelle Charmantier, David Cram, Mark Greengrass, Dorothy Johnston and Anna-Marie Roos deserve special mention for all the help they so willingly offered with the present volume.
I am also indebted to the following friends and colleagues who provided assistance and advice: Jane Amat, Sue Barnes, Jonathan Barry, Rob Bijlsma, Patricia Brekke, Tony Campbell, Abigail Cobley, Mark Cocker, Nigel Collar, Michael Collins, Fred Cooke, Mark Dorrington, Tom Finch, Nathan Flis, Brian Follett, Gareth Fraser, Nick Fry, Emily Glendenning, David Horobin, Jim Horsfall, Ragnar Kinzelbach, Alexander Lee, Louise McCrickard, Peter Marren, Chris Mattison, Matt Merritt, Keith Moore, Mats Olsson, Philip Oswald, Robert Pearce, Rebecca Philips, Pietro Pizzari, Tom Pizzari, Michael Quinn, Roger Riddington, Douglas Russell (at the Natural History Museum, Tring), Karl Schulze-Hagen, Jon Slate, Helen Smith, Claire Spottiswoode, Tilli Tansey, Gavin Thomas, Jamie Thompson, Carlo Violani, John Wade, and the staff in the Manuscripts Department and their colleagues in IT services at Nottingham University Library.
The following very kindly located or provided images: Mark Bentley, Brown University, Simon Butler, Hayley Cotterill, Linda DaVolls, Ian Dillamore, Mark Dorington, Jeremy Early, Corrine Fawcett, Tom Finch, Jean Goodwin, Andreas Hartl, Klaus Nigge, Linda Shaw, Ann Sylph (Zoological Society of London), Katrina van Grouw, and Ray Wilson. I am especially grateful to Lord Middleton and his family and the University of Nottingham (Manuscripts and Special Collections) for permission to reproduce images from the Middleton Collection and from their home.
My friends Dorothy Johnston, Mark Greengrass, Bob Montgomerie and Jeremy Mynott each read the entire manuscript and I thank them for their critical and constructive comments, without which the book would have been much poorer.
I am extraordinarily privileged to have Felicity Bryan as my agent; her unfailing support and enthusiastic advice have been inspirational. I thank Michael Fishwick, my editor, and his superb team at Bloomsbury, and last but by no means least, I thank Richard Mason for his excellent copy-editing.
Finally, I started writing this volume in the mountains of Andalusia close to where Francis Willughby passed by in 1664. Willughby heartily disliked Spain and told his friend John Ray not to bother visiting (unless he had ‘a mind to an Andalusian whore’ – a joke). In contrast, I love Spain and for the last twenty-five years its people, vistas and wonderful wildlife have inspired my writing.
Appendix 1
A Timeline of Francis Willughby’s Life
Date
Willughby Event
National Event
1635 22 November
Francis Willughby (FW) born at Middleton.
1618–48 Thirty Years War (Europe); 1642 start of English Civil War; 1646–8 Witch fever in East Anglia: dozens of women killed; 1649 Charles I beheaded; 1651 Thomas Hobbes publishes Leviathan; 1652 Tea arrives in England.
1652
Enters Trinity College, Cambridge.
1654 James Ussher, Archbishop of Armagh, proposes 4004 bc as the date of creation.
1656–9
Graduates with BA (1656).
Graduates with MA (1659).
1656 Burning alive for murder abolished in Britain, but burning for adultery still legal; 1657 Accademia del Cimento formed in Florence; 1658 Cromwell dies.
1660
John Ray (JR) enlists FW’s help with Cambridge plant survey.
FW visits Oxford University libraries to read natural history volumes.
Restoration of the Monarchy;
Formation of Royal Society (RS).
1660 August
FW accompanies JR on trip through Yorkshire, Cumberland and Lancashire.
1661 April–June
Charles II crowned king of England on 23 April; in June marries the Portuguese princess, Catherine of Braganza.
1661 21 November
At Royal Society, John Wilkins reads FW’s letter on insect life histories; Wilkins proposes FW for membership.
1661 December
FW admitted to Royal Society.
1662 8 May–16 June
With JR and Philip Skippon (PS) on journey from Cambridge to Wales; on return FW leaves the others at Gloucester, becomes ill and returns alone.
This is the journey on which the decision to overhaul the whole of natural history is made.
1662 August
Act of Uniformity ends JR’s Cambridge career.
1662 October
FW at three RS meetings.
1663 18 April
Start of continental journey with JR, PS and Nathaniel Bacon (NB), and two servants.
1663–4
Continental journey.
1664 mid-August–late November
FW travels through Spain.
Re-establishment of Anglican Church;
Isaac Newton publishes on gravit
y.
1664 December
Returns to Middleton.
1665 4 January
Presents astronomical observations at RS.
1665 March
Conducts sap experiments.
Elizabeth Gaunt burnt at stake for treason.
1665 May–June
FW at RS: observes experiment on dog; discusses spontaneous generation and mites.
Great Plague of London just taking hold.
1665 December
Death of FW’s father.
1666 June–July
FW at various RS meetings.
September: Great Fire of London;
Christopher Wren and Robert Hooke start redesigning London.
1666 20 October
Wilkins requests help with classification.
Merret publishes Pinax.
1666–7 winter
FW at Middleton with JR organising specimens.
1667 28 March
Wilkins presents RS repository ‘a kind of silken substance’ taken from shellfish (?mollusc); FW ‘affirmed that he had taken it himself out of a living shellfish, called pinna marina’.
May: Margaret Cavendish is first woman to be invited to a Royal Society meeting (once).
1667 27 June
FW at RS talks about coal.
Jean-Baptise Denys, physician to Louis XIV, performs the first human blood transfusion (sheep’s blood) on a fifteen-year-old boy, who later dies;
First edition of Milton’s Paradise Lost
; Peace of Breda, ending the Second Anglo-Dutch War.
1667 25 June–13 September
Travels with JR to the West Country collecting specimens.
1668 9 January
FW marries Emma Barnard.
England, Sweden and the Netherlands form the triple alliance against the French;
Charles II gives Bombay to East the India Company;
Francesco Redi publishes Esperienze Intorno alla Generazione degli Insetti
(Experiments on the Generation of Insects);
John Wilkins’s Essay towards Real Character published.
1668 13 September
First son, Francis, born.
1668–9 September–March
JR a regular visitor at Middleton: continues sap experiments.
1669 April
FW and JR visit Bishop Wilkins at Chester. FW witnesses JR’s porpoise dissection. FW taken ill.
Mount Etna erupts killing 20,000 people.
1669 29 May
Reports to RS on sap experiments with JR: read at RS on 10 June.
1669 June–July
Writes to RS several times on sap.
1670 20 January
Oldenburg (RS) writes to FW about insects wrapped in leaves.
Charles II and Louis XIV sign a secret anti-Dutch treaty.
1670 29 January
Replies to Henry Oldenburg regarding insects in leaves; sends some insect specimens; refers to expected collaboration with Wilkins on ‘noble theory of motion’, reported to RS on 10 February. This date: ‘Mr Hooke being absent, read some letters, including some by FW.’
1670 12 March
Writes to Oldenburg about sap and requests equipment (thermometers and barometers).
1670 19 March
Oldenburg replies; includes mention of Tonge’s curious observations on spiders.
1670 23 April
Daughter, Cassandra, born.
1670 28 April
At Wollaton with JR.
1670 5 May
RS decides to send FW specimen of ‘worm’ wrapped in leaves (sent on 17 May).
1670 19 July
At Middleton, writes to Oldenburg about Martin Lister’s sap studies.
1670 19 August
At Astrop with relatives to investigate bees in leaves; writes to Oldenburg; letter read at RS on 27 October.
1670 2 September
At Middleton, writes to Oldenburg again about bees; letter read at RS on 27 October.
1670 22 December
Lister writes to JR about FW’s illness and recovery.
1671 13 January
FW and JR write to Oldenburg from Middleton on bees and ants; letters read at RS on 19 January.
Louis XIV and the German Emperor sign a secret anti-Dutch treaty;
Failed attempt by a drunk to steal the Crown Jewels in London.
1671 10 February
Sir William Willoughby dies; the will results in litigation.
1671 spring
JR at Middleton ill with jaundice.
1671 March
FW at Middleton writes to Oldenburg about sap; letter read at RS on 27 April.
1671 13 May
Oldenburg writes to FW and sends insect specimen.
1671 10 July
FW at Middleton writes to Oldenburg about hatching bees collected previously at Astrop.
1671 24 August
FW at Middleton writes to Oldenburg about observations made with JR on insect parasitoids.
1671 September
Visits Lister in York.
1671 18 November
FW and JR in London dealing with litigation over Willoughby will.
1671 late
FW abandons plan to visit North America due to ill health.
1672 9 April
Second son, Thomas, born.
Charles II’s Declaration of Indulgence;
England and France declare war on the Dutch;
John Bunyan released after twelve years in prison.
1672 8 May
At RS meeting in London, discusses parasitic worms.
1672 3 June
Seriously ill.
1672 24 June
Makes will.
1672 3 July
Dies and is buried in Middleton church.
1676
Latin Ornithologiae Libri Tres published.
Extremely hot summer in England;
Antoni van Leeuwenhoek discovers the microscopic world.
1678
English Ornithology published.
Publication of the first part of Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress.
1686
Historia Piscium published.
James II appoints four Catholics to the Privy Council;
Around this time Robert Plot publishes Natural History of Staffordshire.
1705 17 January
JR dies.
Peter Courthope (FW’s cousin) dies;
Isaac Newton knighted by Queen Anne.
1710
Historia Insectorum published.
Following a hard winter, food is short in England.
Appendix 2
Brief Biographies of the Principal Players in Willughby’s Life
FW = Francis Willughby, JR = John Ray, RS = Royal Society
Aldrovandi, Ulisse (1552–1605), Italian naturalist, author of Ornithologiae (1599–1603).
Antrobus, George (d.1708), curate for the Willughby family at Middleton (1665–76) and Wollaton (1679–1708).
Aristotle (384–322 bc), Greek philosopher, wrote extensively on natural history.
Aston, Francis, FRS (1645–1715), Secretary of the RS.
Bacon, Francis (1561–1626), precocious polymath; philosopher, statesman, author.
Bacon, Nathaniel (1647–76), pupil of JR, accompanied FW on continental tour; later colonist of Virginia.
Baldner (Baltner), Leonard (1612–94), ‘fisherman’, magistrate and amateur natural historian on the Rhine; produced (multiple copies of) an illustrated book on this topic.
Barnard, Emma (1644–1725), wife of FW; married 9 January 1668; second marriage to Josiah Child, but chose to be buried alongside Francis.
Barnard, Henry (1618–80), father of Emma, FW’s wife.
Barrow, Isaac, FRS (1630–77), mathematician, developed calculus, Cambridge friend of FW.
Belon, Pierre (1517–64), naturalist, traveller, author of L’Histoire de la nature des oyseaux (1555); murdered in the Bois de Boulogne.
Bloot, Hugo de (1534–1608), Dutch librarian and historian.
Boyle, Robert, FRS (1627–91), natural philosopher and chemist.
Browne, Sir Thomas (1605–82), polymath, naturalist, author of Pseudodoxia Epidemica; his daughter painted images of birds borrowed by JR for Ornithology.
Charleton, Walter, FRS (1619–1707), physician and natural historian; published four images of birds including the pin-tailed sandgrouse.
Child, Sir Josiah (1630–99), merchant, politician, governor of East India Company; Emma’s second husband after FW died.
Colonna, Fabio (1567–1640), Italian philologist and antiquarian.
Concublet, Andrea (1648–75), Marquis of Arena and from 1664 to 1668 organiser of the Academy of Investiganti in Naples.
Copsi, Fernandino (1606–86), Italian owner of a museum, whose collection was merged with Aldrovandi’s in Bologna.
Courthope, Peter (1635–1705), cousin and friend of FW.
Crew, Sir Thomas (1624–97), politician, obtained image of pin-tailed sandgrouse now in the Middleton Collection.
Dale, Samuel (1659–1739), physician and botanist, friend of JR.
Dal Pozzo, Cassiano (1588–1657), prominent figure in Rome’s intellectual circle; member of the Accademia dei Lincei; amassed the ‘paper museum’.
Debes, Lucas Jacobsen (1623–75), Danish priest and writer; wrote on Faeroese seabirds.