Émile Deville (25 January 1824 – 8 January 1853) was a French

physician A physician, medical practitioner (British English), medical doctor, or simply doctor is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the Medical education, study, Med ...

naturalist Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal ...

and

taxidermist Taxidermy is the art of preserving an animal's body by mounting (over an armature) or stuffing, for the purpose of display or study. Animals are often, but not always, portrayed in a lifelike state. The word ''taxidermy'' describes the process ...

. Emile Deville, already an employee of

Muséum national d'histoire naturelle The French National Museum of Natural History ( ; abbr. MNHN) is the national natural history museum of France and a of higher education part of Sorbonne University. The main museum, with four galleries, is located in Paris, France, within the Ja ...

, joined the 1843 expedition of

Francis de Laporte de Castelnau Francis may refer to: People and characters *Pope Francis, head of the Catholic Church (2013–2025) *Francis (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters * Francis (surname) * Francis, a character played by YouTuber Boogie2 ...

(1810–1880) to

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

with the doctor and

botanist Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

Hugh Algernon Weddell Hugh Algernon Weddell (22 June 1819 – 22 July 1877) was a physician and botanist, specialising in South American flora. Weddell was born at Birches House, Painswick near Gloucester, England, but was raised in France and educated at th ...

(1819–1877). He returned with many bird specimens, especially

parrot Parrots (Psittaciformes), also known as psittacines (), are birds with a strong curved beak, upright stance, and clawed feet. They are classified in four families that contain roughly 410 species in 101 genus (biology), genera, found mostly in ...

s, including two new species, Bonaparte's parakeet and the

dusky-headed parakeet The dusky-headed parakeet (''Aratinga weddellii''), also known as Weddell's conure or dusky-headed conure in aviculture, is a small green Neotropical parrot with dusty grey head found in wooded habitats in the western Amazon basin of South Ameri ...

, which he described in 1851. He also described, with

Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (; 16 December 1805 – 10 November 1861) was a French zoologist and an authority on deviation from normal structure. In 1854 he coined the term ''éthologie'' (ethology). Biography He was born in Paris, the ...

, the

white-tailed titi The white-tailed titi monkey (''Plecturocebus discolor'') is a species of titi monkey, a type of New World monkey, from South America. It is found in Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in wester ...

, and with de Castelnau, some

crabs Crabs are decapod crustaceans of the infraorder Brachyura (meaning "short tailed" in Greek), which typically have a very short projecting tail-like abdomen, usually hidden entirely under the thorax. Their exoskeleton is often thickened and ha ...

. A number of species bear his name, such as the

blaze-winged parakeet The blaze-winged parakeet (''Pyrrhura devillei''), known as the blaze-winged conure in aviculture, is a species of bird in subfamily Arinae of the family Psittacidae, the African and New World parrots. It is found in Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay, a ...

, ''Pyrrhura devillei'' and the

striated antbird The striated antbird (''Drymophila devillei'') is a species of bird in subfamily Thamnophilinae of family Thamnophilidae, the "typical antbirds". It is found in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. Taxonomy and systematics The stri ...

, ''Drymophila devillei''. The following are a few of the writings that are attributed to Deville: * ''Description de quelques Mammifères et Oiseaux nouveaux de L'Amérique méridionale'' - Description of some new mammals and birds from South America. * ''Note sur quatre espèces nouvelles d'oiseaux provenant de l'expédition de M. Castelnau'' - Note on four new species of birds from the Castelnau expedition. * ''Considérations sur les avantages de la naturalisation en France de l'alpaca'' - Considerations on the advantages for naturalization of the

alpaca The alpaca (''Lama pacos'') is a species of South American camelid mammal. Traditionally, alpacas were kept in herds that grazed on the level heights of the Andes of Southern Peru, Western Bolivia, Ecuador, and Northern Chile. More recentl ...

in France.WorldCat Identities
(publications)

References

*Edward Julius Goodman, 1992 ''The Explorers of South America'' University of Oklahoma Press {{DEFAULTSORT:Deville, Emile 19th-century French physicians French naturalists French zoologists French ornithologists 1853 deaths 1824 births