Career
Whitehead travelled in Malacca, North Borneo, Java, and Palawan between 1885 and 1888, where he collected a number of zoological specimens new to science, including Whitehead"s broadbill (Calyptomena whiteheadi), writing up his experiences in a book on his return. Between 1893 and 1896 he explored in the Philippines, again collecting many new species, including the Philippine eagle, the binomial name of which commemorates Whitehead"s father Jeffrey. Several species related to John Whitehead:
Whitehead"s woolly bat Kerivoula whiteheadi
Harpy fruit bat Harpyionycteris whiteheadi
Whitehead"s spiny rat Maxomys whiteheadi
Luzon striped rat Chrotomys whiteheadi
Tufted pygmy squirrel Exilisciurus whiteheadi
Luzon striped rat Chrotomys whiteheadi
Whitehead"s Borneo frog - Meristogenys whiteheadi
White-winged magpie Urocissa whiteheadi
Whitehead"s broadbill Calyptomena whiteheadi
Whitehead"s trogon Harpactes whiteheadi
Whitehead"s spiderhunter Arachnothera juliae
Spotted wood-owl Surnia whiteheadi
Whitehead"s swiftlet Collocalia whiteheadi
Bornean stubtail Urosphena whiteheadi
Chestnut-faced babbler Zosterornis whiteheadi
Corsican nuthatch Sitta whiteheadi
Hainan silver pheasant Lophura nycthemera whiteheadi
Whitehead intended to return to the Philippines in 1899, but was he was forced to alter his plans by the Spanish–American War.
He instead travelled to the island of Hainan, where he died of fever.
