Blue-billed Malimbe distribution, type locality circled
Introduction
The Blue-billed Malimbe was formally described by George Robert Gray, an English zoologist, author, and head of the ornithological section of the British Museum. Gray started at the British Museum as Assistant Keeper of the Zoology Branch in 1831, when he would have found the specimen brought to the museum years earlier.
The Blue-billed Malimbe had been collected by Captain Edward Sabine, an Irish astronomer, geophysicist, ornithologist, explorer, and soldier.
Sabine travelled halfway around the world to study the the "oblateness" (shape) of the Earth and carried out measurements on the intertropical coasts of Africa and the Americas. Sabine had struck up a friendship with Douglas Clavering, an officer of the British Royal Navy, who agreed to take Sabine on board the Pheasant. They travelled to Sierra Leone, the Island of St Thomas, Ascension Island, Bahia, Maranham, Trinidad, Jamaica, and New York during the years 1821-23.
The first illustration of a Blue-billed Malimbe is in Gray (1849), although it is a poor illustration (the original may be in colour, the internet scanned version is not). The next potential illustration is by Reichenbach (1863), who illustrated most weavers known at that time - he described 3 malimbes but the paintings of these species do not appear to have been published. This species was not illustrated again until Bannerman (1949).
Weaver Watch
