Timeline of Ornithology - BC Up

BC Up

• 1500–800 BC – The Vedas mention the habit of brood parasitism in the Asian Koel (Eudynamys scolopacea).
• 4th century BC – Aristotle mentions over 170 sorts of birds in his work on animals. He recognises eight principal groups
• 3rd century BC – The Erya, a Chinese encyclopedia comprising glosses on passages in ancient texts, notably the Book of Songs, features 79 entries in its chapter "Describing Birds"
• 1st century – Pliny the Elder's Historia Naturalis Book X is devoted to birds. Three groups based on characteristics of feet
• 2nd century – Aelian mentions a number of birds in his work on animals. Birds are listed alphabetically
• 1037 Death of Abu ‘Ali al-Husayn ibn Abd Allah ibn Sina (known as Avicenna in Latin) author of Abbreviatio de animalibus, a homage to Aristotle
• 1220 - Books on birds and other animals by Aristotle and Avicenna translated into Latin for the first time by Michael Scot
• 1250 - Death of Frederick II von Hohenstaufen, Holy Roman Emperor, and author of de Arte Venandi cum Avibus that describes the first manipulative experiments in ornithology and the methods of falconry
• 1478 – De Avibus by Albertus Magnus is printed, which mentions many bird names for the first time
• 1485 – First dated copy of Ortus sanitatis by Johannes de Cuba
• 1544 – William Turner prints a commentary of the birds mentioned by Aristotle and Pliny
• 1555 – Conrad Gessner's Historic Animalium qui est de Auium natura and Pierre Belon's (Bellonius) Histoire de la nature des Oyseaux. Belon lists birds according to a definite system
• 1573 – Volcher Coiter publishes his first treatise on bird anatomy
• 1591 – Joris Hoefnagel starts to work for Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor and produces for him 90 oil-base paints, of which one is of the Dodo.
• 1596 – The Compendium of Chinese Materia Medica by Li Shizhen includes a total of 77 species of bird.
• 1600 – Beginning of the publication of the works of Ulisse Aldrovandi on birds.
• 1603 – Caspar Schwenckfeld publishes the first regional fauna of Europe: Therio-tropheum Silesiae.
• 1605 – Clusius publishes Exoticorum libri decem in which he describes many new exotic species.
• 1609 – The illustrated Sancai Tuhui, a Chinese encyclopedia by Wang Qi & Wang Siyi, lists a total of 113 species of bird.
• 1638 – Georg Marcgraf begins a voyage to Brazil where he studies the fauna and flora.
• 1652 - Leopoldina founded in the Holy Roman Empire. It is the oldest continuously existing learned society in the world.
• 1655 – Ole Worm collects a famous cabinet of curiosities whose illustrated inventory appears in 1655, Museum Wormianum. This collection comprises many birds but the techniques of conservation are not successful and they are quickly destroyed by insects.
• 1657 – Publication of Historiae naturalis of avibus by John Jonston.
• 1667 – Christopher Merrett publishes the first fauna of Great Britain, followed two years later by that of Walter Charleton.
• 1676 – Publication of Francis Willughby's Ornithologia by his collaborator John Ray. This is considered the beginning of scientific ornithology in Europe, revolutionizing ornithological taxonomy by organizing species according to their physical characteristics
• 1681 – The last Dodo dies on the island of Mauritius