Descriptions of Three New Birds from the Belgian Congo Bulletin of the AMNH , Vol. XXXIV, Art. XVI, pp. 509-513, Oct. 20th, 1915
(Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We h...)
Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.
James Paul Chapin was born on July 9, 1889 in New York City, New York, United States. He was the son of Gilbert Granger Chapin, a greengrocer, and Nano Eagle. His boyhood was spent on Staten Island, where he first learned and became enthusiastic about natural history. He was helped by William T. Davis, who had been largely responsible for the creation of the Natural Science Association of Staten Island. Chapin was made a member of this group at age fifteen and read his first scientific paper before it in October 1905; the paper dealt with the behavior of jumping mice in captivity.
Education
On graduating from high school in 1905 Chapin took a position with the department responsible for preparing exhibits at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, because he felt that he should wait for a year before entering college. In 1906 he entered Columbia University, where he concentrated on biology. Chapin completed the requirements for the B. A. and M. A. at Columbia in 1916 and 1917, but his further studies were interrupted by military service in World War I.
Career
After completing his sophomore year, Chapin was invited to join the American Museum's Belgian Congo Expedition, headed by Herbert Lang of the museum's preparation department. It was understood that he might have to interrupt his education for several years. Chapin accepted the offer, and was in Africa from 1909 until 1915. His work proved to be a major element in the expedition's success, despite his youth and inexperience. He frequently worked by himself for periods of up to a year. The expedition brought back more than 126, 000 specimens, thousands of photographs, and some paintings, all the product of some 15, 000 miles of foot travel. Upon his return to New York, Chapin was made a full-time assistant in the museum's department of ornithology by its chairman, Frank M. Chapman. Fluent in French, he was assigned duty as a billeting officer in France with the rank of first lieutenant in the Allied Expeditionary Force (AEF). When Chapin returned to the museum in 1919, he was made an assistant curator of ornithology. He was promoted in 1923 to associate curator, the rank he held until his retirement in 1948. The bulk of his time was taken up with the study of the Belgian Congo bird materials brought back in 1915. The dissertation for his doctorate, received from Columbia in 1932, was based upon his African research and a biological assessment of the ornithology of the Belgian Congo. This material also served, in somewhat different form, as a major portion of the first volume of Chapin's Birds of the Belgian Congo (1932 - 1954). This four-volume work of more than 3, 000 pages and 400 illustrations is considered the foremost contribution to African ornithology by an American, and one of the best regional studies done on any part of Africa. Chapin did further research in the Congo in 1926-1927, 1930, 1937, and 1942, the last in connection with wartime work for the Office of Strategic Services in Africa and on Ascension Island. Chapin also made short expeditions to the Canadian Rockies in 1915, to Panama in 1923, to the Galapagos in 1930, and to Polynesia in 1934-1935. This last trip resulted in the collection of some of the specimens later mounted in the museum's Hall of Oceanic Birds. His final expedition, made with his second wife following his retirement, lasted from April 1953 to February 1958. He carried on research under the aegis of L'Institut pour la Recherche Scientifique en Afrique Centrale. Chapin was frequently consulted by other ornithologists studying African birds. He was an indefatigable worker. For example, the entire day (a Saturday) preceding his death was spent at the museum. Chapin's attention to detail and his powers of observation are exemplified by the story, frequently recounted by his colleagues, of an unusual wing feather from a then unknown bird that was given to him at Avakubi, in the northeastern Belgian Congo, in 1913. It had been part of a costume, and Chapin had expressed interest in it. Twenty-three years later, while doing research at the Congo Museum in Tervuren, Belgium, he spotted two unfamiliar mounted birds that previous workers had assumed were immature domestic peacocks. Chapin quickly realized that his lone feather was from the same species. These birds were Congo peacocks, a new species. This was a major ornithological discovery, for it had long been supposed that the avian fauna of the Congo had been thoroughly cataloged. Some of Chapin's colleagues were distressed because the first two volumes of the Congo work (1932, 1938) were followed at such a lengthy remove by the remaining two in 1953 and 1954. Chapin was involuntarily retired from the American Museum staff and made curator emeritus at the end of 1948, six months before his sixtieth birthday. Funds raised by his department colleague Robert Cushman Murphy enabled him to complete the Congo bird manuscript as research associate in African ornithology after 1949, and he spent much time in his museum office on other projects in later years. From his student days Chapin maintained meticulous notes embellished with clear drawings and other illustrations. Bird skins prepared by him were described by one associate as being superior in appearance to the living birds themselves. Another colleague described Chapin as "the best loved and also one of the most scholarly of American naturalists. " Chapin died in New York City.
A man of integrity, tact, and good humor, he was unfailingly helpful and did much to prod other workers into becoming productive researchers.
Connections
Chapin married Suzanne Drouël on October 31, 1921; they had four children. They were divorced in 1939, and on September 5, 1940, he married Ruth Trimble, who had been an assistant curator of birds at the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh.