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Arthur Cleveland Bent

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Arthur Cleveland Bent
Born1866
Died1954
USA
NationalityAmerican
Citizenship United States
Scientific career
Fields
InstitutionsSmithsonian Institution

Arthur Cleveland Bent (1866—1954) was an American ornithologist. He is notable for his encyclopedic 21-volume work, Life Histories of North American Birds, published 1919—1968 and completed posthumously.[1]

Bent was brought up in Massachusetts, where he became interested in birds as a child. He was later successful in business and traveled throughout North America, acquiring an extensive knowledge of its avifauna. From 1901 he was contributing papers to The Auk, the journal of the American Ornithologists' Union.[1]

Following a request from the Smithsonian Institution in 1910, Bent started work on the project that would dominate the rest of his life. Using his own experiences, the published literature, and contributions from hundreds of others, he put together what was at the tie by far the most comprehensive repository of knowledge about the biology of the birds of North America. His accounts were published progressively in the United States National Museum Bulletin (NMB),[1] and later republished by Dover.

In 1940 Bent was awarded the John Burroughs Medal for distinguished book-length nature writing.[1] He was awarded the Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal from the National Academy of Sciences in 1949 .[2]

By the time he died, at age of 88, he had published twenty volumes of his work, with an unfinished twenty first.[3]

Life Histories – publication history

  • 1919Life Histories of North American Diving Birds (NMB 107)
  • 1921Life Histories of North American Gulls and Terns (NMB 113)
  • 1922Life Histories of North American Petrels and Pelicans and Their Allies (NMB 121)
  • 1923Life Histories of North American Wild Fowl (part 1) (NMB 126)
  • 1925Life Histories of North American Wild Fowl (part 2) (NMB 130)
  • 1927Life Histories of North American Marsh Birds (NMB 135)
  • 1927 — Life Histories of North American Shore Birds (part 1) (NMB 142)
  • 1929Life Histories of North American Shore Birds (part 2) (NMB 146)
  • 1932Life Histories of North American Gallinaceous Birds (NMB 162)
  • 1937Life Histories of North American Birds of Prey (part 1) (NMB 167)
  • 1938Life Histories of North American Birds of Prey (part 2) (NMB 170)
  • 1939Life Histories of North American Woodpeckers (NMB 174)
  • 1940Life Histories of North American Cuckoos, Goatsuckers, Hummingbirds, and Their Allies (NMB 176)
  • 1942Life Histories of North American Flycatchers, Larks, Swallows, and Their Allies (NMB 179)
  • 1947Life Histories of North American Jays, Crows, and Titmice (NMB 191)
  • 1948Life Histories of North American Nuthatches, Wrens, Thrashers, and Their Allies (NMB 195)
  • 1949Life Histories of North American Thrushes, Kinglets, and Their Allies (NMB 196)
  • 1950Life Histories of North American Wagtails, Shrikes, Vireos, and Their Allies (NMB 197)
  • 1953Life Histories of North American Wood Warblers (NMB 203)
  • 1958Life Histories of North American Blackbirds, Orioles, Tanagers, and Allies (NMB 211)
  • 1968Life Histories of North American Cardinals, Grosbeaks, Buntings, Towhees, Finches, Sparrows, and Allies (3 parts) (Arthur Cleveland Bent and Collaborators, compiled and edited by Oliver L. Austin, Jr.) (NMB 237)[4]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Familiar Birds: About the work of Arthur Cleveland Bent
  2. ^ "Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal". National Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 15 February 2011.
  3. ^ Work
  4. ^ Familiar Birds: Appendix