Jules Bourcier

Claude Marie Jules Bourcier (19 February 1797 – 9 March 1873) was a French naturalist and expert on hummingbirds.^[1][2]

Jules Bourcier
Born	(1797-02-19)19 February 1797 Cuisery, Saône-et-Loire, France
Died	9 March 1873(1873-03-09) (aged 76) Batignolles, Paris
Known for	Descriptions de nouvelles espèces d'oiseaux-mouches, 1839 (with Martial Étienne Mulsant and Jules Verreaux); Collection typique d'oiseaux mouches (Trochilidés), 1874
Scientific career
Fields	Ornithology (especially hummingbirds)
Author abbrev. (botany)	Bourcier

Bourcier was born in Cuisery, Saône-et-Loire.^[3] He was the mayor of Millery, Rhône from 1832 to 1837, and he was the French consul to Ecuador from 1849 to 1850. In 1857, he became a corresponding member of the Société linnéenne de Lyon.^[1]

Bourcier named a number of new hummingbird species, either alone or with other ornithologists, such as Adolphe Delattre and Martial Etienne Mulsant.

The following hummingbird species bear his name:

• Colibri de Bourcier (Polyonymus caroli), described by Bourcier in 1847;
• Phaethornis bourcieri, described by René Primevère Lesson in 1832.^[1]

A species of South American snake, Saphenophis boursieri, was named in his honor by Giorgio Jan in 1867.^[4] The terrestrial mollusk genus Bourciera was named after him, based on specimens he collected for Louis Pfeiffer.

He died in Batignolles, Paris, in 1873.^[3]

Publications

• Descriptions de nouvelles espèces d'oiseaux-mouches, 1839 (with Martial Étienne Mulsant & Jules Verreaux)
• Collection typique d'oiseaux mouches (Trochilidés), 1874 (posthumous)^[5]

Sources

• Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael (2003). Whose Bird?: Men and women commemorated in the common names of birds. London: Christopher Helm. 400 pp. ISBN 978-0713666472.