Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Notes and News

1917; Oxford University Press; Volume: 34; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2307/4072317

1938-4254

He studied at the Zoological Station at Naples and was an assistant of Prof. Ernst Haeckel at the Zoological Institute at Jena.In 1884 he went to Brazil and became associated with the museum in Rio de Janeiro.After the fall of the Emperor Dom Pedro II, in 1889, he retired from this position and lived for four years in the state of Rio de Janeiro.About 1894 he founded the museum in Para, now known as the Museu Goeldi.This institution which comprised not only a museum but also a zoélogical garden and a botanical garden was taken over by the state a few years later and Goeldi then became honorary director.In 1905, after 20 years of life in the tropics, he returned to Switzerland and took up his residence in Bern where, since 1908, he has been professor of zodlogy in the Cantonal University.He visited the United States in August, 1907, at the time of the meeting of the Seventh International Congress of Zoélogy in Boston.Dr. Goeldi has published a number of papers in English, German and Portuguese on various branches of zoédlogy, but chiefly on mammals, birds and fishes.He is also the author of a monograph on the mosquitoes of Brazil.His best known publications on birds are his 'Aves do Brazil,' in two volumes, 1894-1900, and the supplement to this work entitled 'Album de Aves Amazonicas,' in three parts, 1900-1906, containing colored illustrations of about 400 species.He also contributed several papers to 'The Ibis', including an important one on the 'Ornithological Results of a Naturalist's Visit to the Coast Region of South Guyana,' Brazil, in 1895.He was especially interested in studying the habits of birds and was the discoverer of the parasitic habits of Cassidix oryzivora.He was also deeply interested in bird protection and during his residence in Rio de Janeiro and in Para endeavored to secure the enactment of legislation for the protection of species which were being ruthlessly slaughtered for the millinery trade.Two of his memorials to the Governor of the State of Para were later translated into English and published under the title 'Against the Destruction of White Herons and Red Ibises on the Lower Amazon,' Para, 1904.The museum which bears his name will long remain a monument to the energy of Dr. Goeldi in encouraging natural history work in Brazil.-TS:P3