Karl Johann Nepomuk Ernst Luchs (3 September 1811 – 3 January 1886) was a German physician in the Silesian spa town of Bad Warmbrunn. He was also a naturalist,

aviculturist Aviculture is the practice of keeping and breeding birds, especially of wild birds in captivity. Aviculture Aviculture is the practice of keeping birds (class ''Aves'') in captivity in controlled conditions, normally within the confines of a c ...

, and collector of natural history specimens. Two species of birds were named in his honour. Luchs was born in Warmbrunn, now

Cieplice Śląskie-Zdrój Cieplice may refer to the following places in Poland: * Cieplice, Lesser Poland Voivodeship (south Poland) * Cieplice, Subcarpathian Voivodeship (south-east Poland) * Cieplice, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship (north Poland) *, a former town, now a ...

. He studied medicine at the

University of Breslau A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...

with a dissertation ''De sphygmologia'' (1836) and worked as a spa doctor at Warmbrunn throughout the rest of his life. He was a keen aviculturist and also made a collection of bird skins which he sold in 1878 to Ludwig Graf von Schaffgotsch (1842–1891). The ornithologist

Otto Finsch Friedrich Hermann Otto Finsch (8 August 1839, Warmbrunn – 31 January 1917, Braunschweig) was a German ethnographer, natural history, naturalist and colonial explorer. He is known for a two-volume monograph on the parrots of the world which earne ...

named '' Myiopsitta luchsi'' (now usually treated as a subspecies of the

monk parakeet The monk parakeet (''Myiopsitta monachus''), also known as the monk parrot or Quaker parrot, is a species of true parrot in the family Psittacidae. It is a small, bright-green parrot with a greyish breast and greenish-yellow abdomen. Its averag ...

''Myiopsitta monachus luchsi'') after him.

Karl Russ Karl Friedrich Otto Ruß (January 14, 1833, Baldenburg – September 29, 1899, Berlin) was a Prussian pharmacist, aviculturist, author of bird-keeping books, and the founding editor of the world's first bird-fancier magazine ''Die Gefiederte Wel ...

named a finch species as ''Aegintha luchsi'' in 1882 which is now thought to be a hybrid of two

estrildid Estrildidae, or estrildid finches, is a family (taxonomy), family of small seed-eating passerine birds of the Old World tropics and Australasia. They comprise species commonly known as munias, mannikins, firefinches, parrotfinches and waxbills. ...

species. Luchs was elected member of the Leopoldina academy in 1848 and was a member of the German ornithological society from 1870.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Luchs, Ernst 1811 births 1886 deaths German naturalists 19th-century German physicians Aviculturists Prussian physicians Naturalists from the Kingdom of Prussia 19th-century German naturalists