John Sidney Ash (1925 – 2014) was an English ornithologist. He had a strong interest in the

avifauna Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweight ...

from the

Horn of Africa The Horn of Africa (HoA), also known as the Somali Peninsula, is a large peninsula and geopolitical region in East Africa.Robert Stock, ''Africa South of the Sahara, Second Edition: A Geographical Interpretation'', (The Guilford Press; 2004), ...

, in particular

Somalia Somalia, officially the Federal Republic of Somalia, is the easternmost country in continental Africa. The country is located in the Horn of Africa and is bordered by Ethiopia to the west, Djibouti to the northwest, Kenya to the southwest, th ...

Eritrea Eritrea, officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa, with its capital and largest city being Asmara. It is bordered by Ethiopia in the Eritrea–Ethiopia border, south, Sudan in the west, and Dj ...

and

Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...

.Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael (2003). Whose Bird? Men and Women Commemorated in the Common Names of Birds. London: Christopher Helm. p. 30.

Career

Ash was born in

Gosforth Gosforth is an area of Newcastle upon Tyne, England, situated north of the Newcastle City Centre, City Centre. It constituted a separate Urban district (Great Britain and Ireland), urban district of Northumberland from 1895 until 1974 before of ...

Northumberland Northumberland ( ) is a ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North East England, on the Anglo-Scottish border, border with Scotland. It is bordered by the North Sea to the east, Tyne and Wear and County Durham to the south, Cumb ...

on 26 May 1925 as son of Sidney and Kathleen Ash né Denley. In 1945, he graduated with a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...

from the Newcastle wing of the

University of Durham Durham University (legally the University of Durham) is a collegiate public research university in Durham, England, founded by an Act of Parliament in 1832 and incorporated by royal charter in 1837. It was the first recognised university to ...

. He received the D.I.C. at the

Imperial College London Imperial College London, also known as Imperial, is a Public university, public research university in London, England. Its history began with Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, who envisioned a Al ...

in 1948 and promoted there to

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

in 1952. He was co-author of two fieldguides, ''The Birds of Somalia'' (with John E. Miskell) in 1998, and ''Birds of Ethiopia and Eritrea'' (with John Atkins) in 2009. Ash discovered several new bird taxa, including the

Ankober serin The Ankober serin (''Crithagra ankoberensis'') is a species of finch in the family Fringillidae. It is a small brown seedeater, about 12 centimeters or 5 inches in length with brown upperparts and its head and breast distinguished with heavy buff ...

(''Serinus ankoberensis''), ''Turdoides squamulata carolinae'' (a subspecies of the

scaly babbler The scaly babbler (''Turdoides squamulata'') is a species of bird in the family Leiothrichidae. It is found in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry forest and subtropical or tropical dry shrubland. R ...

) which he named for his daughter Caroline, ''Hippolais pallida alulensis'' (a subspecies of the

eastern olivaceous warbler The eastern olivaceous warbler (''Iduna pallida''), known simply as the olivaceous warbler when its Western olivaceous warbler, western relative is referred to as the 'Isabelline warbler', is a small passerine bird with drab plumage tones, that i ...

), ''Acrocephalus scirpaceus avicenniae'' (a subspecies of the

common reed warbler The common reed warbler (''Acrocephalus scirpaceus'') is an Old World warbler in the genus '' Acrocephalus''. It breeds across Europe into the temperate western Palaearctic where it is migratory, wintering in sub-Saharan Africa. It is also a res ...

), the

Ash's lark The Somali lark (''Corypha somalica'') is a species of lark in the family Alaudidae endemic to Somalia. Ash's lark is now considered to be a subspecies. Taxonomy The Somali lark was formally described in 1903 by the British ornithologist Harr ...

(''Mirafra ashi'') which was named after him by Peter Colston in 1982, and '' Ploceus victoriae'', which is now thought to be a hybrid between the

black-headed weaver The black-headed weaver (''Ploceus melanocephalus''), also known as yellow-backed weaver, is a species of bird in the family Ploceidae. It is a resident breeder in damp areas in tropical Africa. Taxonomy The black-headed weaver was formally ...

and the northern brown-throated weaver. In May 1968, he co-discovered the Sidamo lark along with Christian Érard who described this species in 1975 but is now considered as conspecific with Archer's lark. He died on 6 January 2014. In November 1951, Ash married Jonquil Gudgeon, a zoologist, who died three days before him. The couple had one daughter, Caroline Penelope-Jane.

References

1925 births 2014 deaths English ornithologists People from Gosforth Alumni of Imperial College London Alumni of King's College, Newcastle {{UK-ornithologist-stub