Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 01:46, 21 August 2006

Revision as of 02:24, 21 August 2006

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[[1911]] was marked by the publication of ''An Australian Bird Book'', by [[John Albert Leach]]. The popularity of the first edition ensured that a series of further editions and reprints continued into the 1960s. This was followed in 1931 with the first publication of [[Neville Cayley]]'s [[What Bird is That?]], further editions of which continued to be published into the 1980s. These books were focussed on bird identification rather than collecting and were affordable to the general public. They reflected the shifting mood in amateur ornithology, through the first half of the 20th Century, from collecting to observation.

The annual campouts were increasingly being seen as opportunities for [[bird-watching]], [[photography]] and non-destructive studies. During the [[1933]] campout at [[Gwydir]], [[New South Wales]], extensive egg-collecting by the oologists present aroused much criticism from other members; some of the egg-collectors were later formally censured. This growing split between members' attitudes to bird-study came to a head at the [[1935]] campout at [[Marlo]], eastern [[Victoria, Australia|Victoria]], when a museum curatorornithologist, [[George Mack]], defiantly shot a [[Scarlet Robin]] at its nest which had been under observation by the party. This caused outrage among many members and was followed by a decision of the RAOU Council to appoint a committee to reconsider the question of collecting. The result was a policy that collecting of specimens, except under government permit, was not acceptable, and that no collecting should take place at campouts anyway.

===Decline and division===