G'day Philip & Andrew and all,
An interesting article by F.T.H.Smith
"The finding and consequent identification of the
Sarus Crane in Australia"
was published in The Bird Observer, Number 471, February
1971, p7
It details the original sightings by himself, Mrs Gill and
Eric Zillman of sighting Sarus Cranes at Glenore Crossing, near
Normanton 12/10/1966 and at Burketown 14/10/1966.
Subsequently at home in Melbourne, he was looking at
Collins Pocket Guide to British Birds, and visited the
Melbourne zoo 28/12/1966 to look at a Sarus Crane, that he then wrote to Mrs
Gill 28/12/1966 letting her know of his assumption ... etc,etc
He also wrote -
- Bruce Cook was the first to recognise the Sarus Crane on
the Atherton Tablelands 29/7/1967 (See The Bird Observer N0. 423 &
424)
- Mrs Gill, Mrs Duve & Bruce Cook (naturalist &
photographer) revisited the Normanton area 25-28/4/1967
- Mrs Gill's paper in the Emu Vol69, p49 was altered and
shortened at editorial level and lost completeness of
information.
- A.H.Chisholm in his paper, The Australian Bird Watcher,
Vol 3, N0 7, pp236-237, June 1970, overlooked his
participation.
- Hugh Lavery, a zoologist from Townsville became
convinced that something was"doing" in the gulf country ...and
collected a specimen(s?) It is regretted that he omitted to let his
original informant (Mrs Gill) know the result of his findings
...
(This collection of a specimen by Lavery seems to be at
variance with Mrs Gill preparing the holotype. Bob
F )
Unfortunately my scanner stopped talking to my PC last
week otherwise I would have posted the full article.
It seems Fred Smith's identification of the species
has not received credit that it deserves !
Unfortunately I have not read the two references in the
earlier Bird Observers.
Regards, Bob Forsyth, Mount Isa, NW Qld.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
----- Original
Message -----
From: Philip A. Veerman
Extract "The
sub-species was named Grus antigone gillae in honour of Mrs. H.B. Gill, who
in 1969 first reported the species in Australia and who prepared the
holotype."
