Michael Patrick Stuart Irwin

Michael Patrick Stuart Irwin (1925[1] – 13 September 2017)[2] was a British-Rhodesian ornithologist.

For English bowler, see Stuart Irwin (bowls).
Michael Patrick Stuart Irwin
Born1 July 1925
Donaghadee, County Down, Northern Ireland
Died13 September 2017(2017-09-13) (aged 92)
Litcham, Norfolk
NationalityNorthern Irish
CitizenshipBritish, Rhodesian
Known forThe Birds of Zimbabwe
Scientific career
FieldsOrnithology
InstitutionsNatural History Museum of Zimbabwe
InfluencesReay Smithers, Constantine Walter Benson
Author abbrev. (zoology)Irwin

Biography

Irwin was born in Northern Ireland and moved to Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) in 1949 where he met Reay Smithers, then director of the National Museum of Southern Rhodesia in Bulawayo, and soon became collector with the museum. In 1959 he was assistant curator of vertebrates, subsequently curator of ornithology, in 1975[1] regional director in Bulawayo, and finally associate ornithologist, and as of 2012[1] a natural history librarian in Norfolk.[3]

Irwin worked closely with Constantine Walter Benson, an authority on central African birds. Together, they expanded the bird collection of the Natural History Museum of Zimbabwe until it became the largest both in Africa and in the southern hemisphere. It currently housed over 90,000 specimens from Zimbabwe and neighbouring countries and is one of the museum's greatest resources.[3]

In 1981, Irwin published his best known work The Birds of Zimbabwe, but he had previously published the Bibliography of the Birds of Rhodesia in 1978, and co-authored A Checklist of Birds of Southern Rhodesia (with Reay Smithers) in 1957 and The Birds of Zambia (with Constantine Walter Benson) in 1971. He contributed also to The Birds of Africa series (with Emil K. Urban, Stuart Keith and C. Hilary Fry) and has published more than 300 scientific papers, many of them in the museum's journal Arnoldia.[3]

Irwin described the subspecies Spizocorys conirostris crypta of the pink-billed lark in 1957,[4] the subspecies Eremopterix verticalis khama of the grey-backed sparrow-lark in 1957,[5] the subspecies Calamonastes stierlingi pinto of the Stierling's wren-warbler in 1960,[6] and together with Benson the subspecies Eremopterix verticalis harti in 1965[7] and the subspecies Mirafra fasciolata reynoldsi of the eastern clapper lark in 1965.[8] In collaboration with Phillip Clancey he described the monotypic genus Arcanator for the dapple-throat in 1986.[9]

Irwin was editor of Honeyguide, an ornithological journal of Bird Life Zimbabwe, for 24 years.[3]

In May 2017, he had a severe fall and in September 2017 he died from the consequences of a hip fracture.[2]

References
  1. Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2014). The Eponym Dictionary of Birds. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 1472905741, p 278
  2. Obituary in The Babbler, No. 138, Oct–Nov 2017, p 3
  3. The Museums Renowned Past Curators
  4. Irwin, Michael P. Stuart, 1957: A new race of pink-billed lark Calandrella conirostris from Northern Bechuanaland Protectorate. Bull Brit Ornithol Club 77(7): 117
  5. Irwin, Michael P.S., 1957: A new race of Eremopterix verticalis from the Makarikari Pan, Northern Bechuanaland Protectorate. Bull Brit Ornithol Club 77(5): 87
  6. Irwin, M.P.S. (1960) Relationships within the Camaroptera fasciolata-stierlingi-simplex complex of warblers. Durban Mus. Novit. 6(3): 47-60.
  7. Benson, C.W. & Irwin, M.P.S. (1965) The Grey-backed Sparrow-lark, Eremopterix verticalis (Smith). Arnoldia, Rhodesia 1(36): 1-9.,
  8. C. W. Benson & M. P. Stuart Irwin (1965): A new subspecies of Clapper lark, mirafra apiata from Barotseland Arnoldia, Rhodesia 1(37): 1
  9. P. A. Clancey & M. P. S. Irwin (1986): A new generic status for the Dappled Mountain robin Bulletin Br. Orn. Club 106 (3), p 111-115
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