August Wilhelm Heinrich Blasius (5 July 1845 in

Braunschweig Braunschweig () or Brunswick ( ; from Low German , local dialect: ) is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in Lower Saxony, Germany, north of the Harz Mountains at the farthest navigable point of the river Oker, which connects it to the ...

– 31 May 1912 in

) was a German

ornithologist Ornithology, from Ancient Greek ὄρνις (''órnis''), meaning "bird", and -logy from λόγος (''lógos''), meaning "study", is a branch of zoology dedicated to the study of birds. Several aspects of ornithology differ from related discip ...

. Blasius belonged to a family of scientists: his father was the ornithologist Johann Heinrich Blasius (1809-1870) and his brother was the ornithologist Rudolf Heinrich Paul Blasius (1842-1907). In 1871 he became a professor of

zoology Zoology ( , ) is the scientific study of animals. Its studies include the anatomy, structure, embryology, Biological classification, classification, Ethology, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinction, extinct, and ...

and

botany 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 ...

at the

Braunschweig University of Technology TU Braunschweig (, unofficially ''University of Braunschweig – Institute of Technology'') is the oldest ' (comparable to an institute of technology in the American system) in Germany. It was founded in 1745 as Collegium Carolinum and is a membe ...

. He also served as director of its

natural history museum A natural history museum or museum of natural history is a scientific institution with natural history scientific collection, collections that include current and historical records of animals, plants, Fungus, fungi, ecosystems, geology, paleo ...

and botanical gardens. He was a member of the council for the ''

Deutsche Ornithologen-Gesellschaft The German Ornithologists' Society (since 2024 , until then ) was founded in 1850, and is one of the world's oldest existing scientific societies. Its goal is to support and further scientific ornithology in Germany Germany, officially the F ...

'' (German Ornithological Society).

Selected writings

* ''Beiträge zur Kenntniss der Vogelfauna von Borneo'', 1881 (with Adolph Nehrkorn) - Contribution to the knowledge of birds from

Borneo Borneo () is the List of islands by area, third-largest island in the world, with an area of , and population of 23,053,723 (2020 national censuses). Situated at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, it is one of the Greater Sunda ...

. * ''Dr. Platen's ornithologische Sammlungen aus Amboina'', 1882 (with Adolf Nehrkorn) - Dr. Platen's ornithological collection from Amboina. * ''Über die letzten Vorkommnisse des Riesen-Alks (Alca impennis)'', 1883 - On the last occurrences of the

great auk The great auk (''Pinguinus impennis''), also known as the penguin or garefowl, is an Extinction, extinct species of flightless bird, flightless auk, alcid that first appeared around 400,000 years ago and Bird extinction, became extinct in the ...

(''Alca impennis''). * ''Ueber einige Vögel von Cochabamba in Bolivia'', 1885 - On some birds of

Cochabamba Cochabamba (; ) is a city and municipality in central Bolivia in a valley in the Andes mountain range. It is the capital (political), capital of the Cochabamba Department and the list of cities in Bolivia, fourth largest city in Bolivia, with ...

Bolivia Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a landlocked country located in central South America. The country features diverse geography, including vast Amazonian plains, tropical lowlands, mountains, the Gran Chaco Province, w ...

. * ''Beiträge zur Kenntniss der Vogelfauna von Celebes'', 1885 - Contribution to the knowledge of birds from the

Celebes Sulawesi ( ), also known as Celebes ( ), is an island in Indonesia. One of the four Greater Sunda Islands, and the world's 11th-largest island, it is situated east of Borneo, west of the Maluku Islands, and south of Mindanao and the Sulu Archi ...

. * ''Die Vögel von Gross-Sanghir'', 1888 - Birds of Greater Sanghir. * ''Die anthropologische litteratur Braunschweigs und der nachbargebiete'', 1900 -

Anthropological Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including archaic humans. Social anthropology studies patterns of behaviour, wh ...

literature of Braunschweig and neighboring areas.WorldCat Search
(publications)

References

*Beolens, Bo & Watkins, Michael (2003). ''Whose Bird?: Men and women commemorated in the common names of birds'', Christopher Helm, London. German ornithologists 1845 births 1912 deaths Scientists from Braunschweig People from the Duchy of Brunswick Academic staff of TU Braunschweig 19th-century German zoologists {{ornithologist-stub