Albert Stewart Meek

Albert Stewart Meek (1871–1943) was an English bird collector and naturalist. The name Alfred S. Meek which can be read in several publications is referred to Albert Stewart Meek.

Biography

Meek was born in London, the son of a merchant in natural history items. In 1893 he travelled to Australia and he spent some time at George Barnard’s cattle station Coomooboolaroo, the only place in Australia where the now extinct Paradise Parrot had occurred. It is not known if Meek ever saw this species. In 1894 he began collecting bird and insect specimens for the well-known zoologist Lionel Walter Rothschild, first in England, then in Australia, and later in the Pacific region (in particular the Solomon Islands, New Guinea and Bougainville, where he was the first naturalist who observed the birdlife). In addition he became a dealer in feathers and insects. In 1904 he travelled to Choiseul where he collected the last specimens of the Choiseul Crested Pigeon. But due to the horrible reputation of the islanders as cannibals he was protected by an armed escort to bring the skins to his vessel. At an expedition in New Guinea in 1906 he discovered and shot the first specimen of the Queen Alexandra's Birdwing (Ornithoptera alexandrae), the largest butterfly in the world. While being on a visit with the Papua he estimated that the headdress of the chief needs the feathers of more than 23 killed birds (e.g. Birds of Paradise) to create the middle alone.

His collection of bird skins and insects belongs to the most important exhibits in the Natural History Museum in London. Specimens from Meek's collections can be also seen in the American Museum of Natural History.

Species named after Meek include seven full bird species:

Choiseul Crested Pigeon (Migrogoura meeki), Meek's Lorikeet (Charmosyna meeki), Meek's Pygmy Parrot (Micropsitta meeki), Bougainville Crow (Corvus meeki), White-throated White-eye (Zosterops meeki), Yellowish-streaked Honeyeater (Ptiloprora meekiana), and the Manus Hawk Owl (Ninox meeki).

Literature by and about Albert S. Meek

• Rothschild, M. 1983. Dear Lord Rothschild: Birds, butterflies and history. Balaban, Philadelphia. xx + 398 pp. Mentions Walter Rothschild's collectors in New Guinea, including William Doherty, Albert S. Meek, Ernst Mayr, etc.

• Rothschild, W., and E. Hartert. 1913. List of the collections of birds made by Albert S. Meek in the lower ranges of the Snow Mountains, on the Eilanden River, and on Mount Goliath during the years 1910 and 1911. Novitates Zoologicae 20:473-527. Notes on Lepidoptera collected by Albert S. Meek in Irian Jaya during 1910 and 1911, including descriptions of localities

• Barbara and Richard Mearns, The Bird Collectors, Academic Press, 1998, ISBN 0-12-487440-1

• Albert S. Meek, A Naturalist in Cannibal Land, 1913, Fischer Unwin, London

References

• Albert Stewart Meek
• Fur and feathers