Bernard Tucker: Difference between revisions

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{{Short description|English ornithologist}}

'''Bernard William Tucker''' ([[22 January]] [[1901]] - [[19 December]] [[1950]]) was an [[England|English]] [[ornithologist]]. He was lecturer in [[zoology]] at [[Oxford University]], a long-time editor of [[British Birds (Magazine)|British Birds]] and one of the authors of ''[[Handbook of British Birds|The Handbook of British Birds]]''. He was the first Secretary of the [[British Trust for Ornithology]] (BTO) and founder of the [[Oxford Ornithological Society]] in 1921.

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[[File:Bernard Tucker.jpg|thumb|Tucker in 1934, photographed by [[Alexander Wetmore]] during the 8th International Ornithological Congress for which Tucker served as treasurer and secretary of the reception committee]]

'''Bernard William Tucker''' ([[22{{birth January]]date [[|1901]]|01|22|df=y}} - [[19{{death December]] [[date|1950]]|12|19|1901|01|22|df=y}}) was an [[England|English]] [[ornithologist]]. He was lecturer in [[zoology]] at [[Oxford University]], a long-time editor of [[British Birds (Magazinemagazine)|British Birds]] and one of the authors of ''[[Handbook of British Birds|The Handbook of British Birds]]''. He was the first SecretaryTreasurer of the [[British Trust for Ornithology]] (BTO) and founder of the [[Oxford Ornithological Society]] in 1921.

Tucker was born at [[Northaw]], [[Hertfordshire]] to William and Constance Susan Tucker and was educated at [[Harrow School]] and [[Magdalen College, Oxford]], gaining first class honours in 1923. He took an interest in birds even as a young boy. He spent 1924 at the Zoological GardensStation in [[Naples]] investigating parasitism in [[crustacean]]s.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Memoirs: On the effects of an Epicaridan Parasite, Gyge branchialis, on Upogebia littoralis| author=Tucker, B.W.| journal=Mem. Q. J. Microscop. Soc.| year= 1930| pages=1–118| volume=s2-74| issue=293|url=http://jcs.biologists.org/content/s2-74/293/1.abstract}}</ref> In 1925 he was appointed Demonstrator in the Zoological Laboratory, Cambridge. In 1926 he became Demonstrator in Zoology and Comparative Anatomy at Oxford University. In 1946 he became the first person to be appointed as a reader in ornithology in a British University. Tucker along with [[Max Nicholson]] played a key role in leading the collaborative Oxford Bird Census in 1927.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Toogood|first=Mark|date=2011|title=Modern observations: new ornithology and the science of ourselves, 1920–1940|journal=Journal of Historical Geography|volume=37|issue=3|pages=348–357|doi=10.1016/j.jhg.2010.11.002}}</ref> According to the Nicholson and J D Witherby in their obituary, Tucker was ''the least dramatic of men, but he did much to bring about a revolution in ornithology and to guard it against the reaction which awaits a revolution if it goes too far and too fast.''<ref name=bb>{{cite journal|url=https://britishbirds.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/article_files/V44/V44_N02/V44_N02_P041_046_OB009.pdf| title=Obituary. Bernard William Tucker (1901-1950)| journal=British Birds| volume=44| issue=2| year= 1951|pages=41–46|author1=Nicholson EM|author2=Witherby JD}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Hardy|first=A.C.|date=1951-02-03|title=Obituaries. B.W. Tucker|journal=Nature|language=En|volume=167|issue=4240|pages=175|doi=10.1038/167175a0|pmid=14806414|doi-access=free}}</ref>

During his stint in Naples he met Gladys Allen whom he married on 11 July 1925.<ref name= bb />

The BTO now awards a ''[[Bernard Tucker Medal]]''.

A subspecies of the [[Bornean treepie]] was named after him as ''[[Dendrocitta cinerascens|Dendrocitta sinensis tuckeri]]'' by [[Tom Harrisson]] and C.H. Hartley in 1934<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/40497199 |author1=Harrisson, T. H.|author2= Hartley, C. H. |year=1934|title= New races from mountain areas in Borneo|journal= Bull. Brit. Orn. Club|volume= 54|pages= 148–160}}</ref> but this is no longer considered a valid subspecies.<ref>{{cite journal|author1=Dickinson, E.C.|author2=Dekker, R.W.R.J. |author3=Eck, S. |author4=Somadikarta, S.| title= Systematic notes on Asian birds. 45. Types of the Corvidae| journal= Zool. Verh. Leiden |volume=350| year=2004| pages= 111–148|url=http://www.repository.naturalis.nl/document/43939}}</ref> The BTO awards a ''[[Bernard Tucker Medal]]'' in his memory.

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==References==

[[Category:1901 births|Tucker, Bernard]]

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[[Category:People from Hertfordshire|Tucker, Bernard]]

[[Category:1950 deaths|Tucker, Bernard]]

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:English ornithologists|Tucker, Bernard]]

[[Category:Academics of the University of Cambridge|Tucker, Bernard]]

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[[Category:1901 births|Tucker, Bernard]]

[[Category:1950 deaths|Tucker, Bernard]]

[[Category:People educated at Harrow School]]

[[Category:Alumni of Magdalen College, Oxford]]

[[Category:People from Hertfordshire|Tucker, BernardNorthaw]]

[[Category:English ornithologists|Tucker, Bernard]]

[[Category:Academics of the University of Cambridge|Tucker, Bernard]]

[[Category:British Trust for Ornithology people]]

[[Category:20th-century English zoologists]]

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