Charles-Eusèbe Dionne
Encyclopedia
Charles-Eusèbe Dionne also known as Charles Eusebe or C. E. Dionne, was a French Canadian
naturalist and taxidermist. He is considered the first professional French Canadian ornithologist
. Dionne was a self-taught scientist and wrote several books on the natural history
of Quebec, including the first field guide to the province's mammal
fauna; he was a well-respected scholar and became a fellow of the American Ornithologists' Union
.
, near Kamouraska
, the eldest of six boys and five girls born to Eusèbe Dionne and Amélie Lavoie. His father was a cobbler and farmer but the couple attached considerable importance to education, and Charles-Eusèbe displayed a thirst for knowledge from a young age, which was first noticed by his aunt Philomène. Philomène Dionne was the first to notice his affinity for natural history
. Dionne captured and stuffed his first specimen at 14. After he had completed his elementary study, Philomène was the one who paid so he could benefit from private classes, where he came across a natural history book, an incident he would delight in recount in his later years, even though he could not remember the title.
in 1865 and, with the help of his cousin Zéphirin, who worked there, found work at the Séminaire de Québec. His predisposition was rapidly noticed and, having benefited from personal teaching sessions with Thomas-Étienne Hamel
, he was promoted from cook to a position at Université Laval
's (then administrated by the seminary
) faculty of law. He became friend with historian and librarian Charles-Honoré Laverdière
, and acquired from him scholarly techniques and instinct, all the while developing his knowledge and becoming an admirer of Léon Abel Provancher
. He truly began to develop his natural history collections at that time. Unfortunately, his first attempts were of poor quality. It is possible that he acquired the basis for the techniques that would make his later fame from William Couper
, a naturalist that resided in Quebec City during that period.
His knowledge in the various fields of natural sciences grew steadily thanks to the studies he did of his specimens, and the volumes he accessed through the university's library. He also followed classes at Laval and the Académie Commerciale of the Brothers of the Christian Schools
. Having acquired knowledge of Latin and English, he could access a further wealth of knowledge. In 1873, Dionne was promoted deputy librarian to assist Laverdière, who couldn't keep up with the work. Laverdière died soon after and Dionne mourned a fellow academic and friend.
Dionne's major interests over the course of his career were ornithology
, entomology
and taxidermy
, although he wrote little about entomology. His renowned skills and amiable predisposition made him a prime candidate to become assistant-curator to François-Xavier Bélanger
at Laval's zoological museum. He was possibly more competent on the whole than Bélanger, though the later had dedicated his later life to the museum. In 1882, upon the death of the curator, Dionne was appointed in his place. He would help turn the collection into one of the finest in the province. That same year Dionne published his Les oiseaux du Canada and traveled in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence
with J.-U. Gregory, of the Quebec City Marine Bureau, with the aim of helping build ichtyological collections, for which Gregory would thank him. Dionne would refer several times to this expedition in his book. By 1887, his personal entomological collections had grown to over 1,500 specimens; the museum's counted over 16,000 of insects and animals. Dionne talented taxidermy was again noticed when he exposed nearly four hundred specimens at the 1887 provincial fair
, where he collected two prizes. That collection, or most of it, would be acquired by Dominique-Napoléon Saint-Cyr
in 1889 and form the basis of the zoological collections of the Musée de l'Instruction Publique (now part of the Musée de la Civilisation
collection). Dionne subsequently remained the main taxidermist for the museum under Saint-Cyr's successors, and it was curator Victor-Alphonse Huard
who would later suggest his candidacy to the Royal Society.
) a reorganization of his first book into a Catalogue des oiseaux de la Province de Québec avec des notes sur leur distribution géographique ("Catalogues of the birds of Quebec with notes on their distribution", generally referred as the Catalogue des oiseaux de la Province de Québec, or just Catalogue). The perceptive and up-to-date (it used the American Ornithologists' Union
classification), if short on overall information, ouvrage garnered good reviews from specialists such as Elliott Coues
and Charles Foster Batchelder. Future president of the Union Jonathan Dwight
noticed a very recent and subtle publication of his being taken into account and visited Dionne in 1891 to check on it. Dionne turned out to be right, and the two men struck up a friendship. This friendship and the one Dionne struck with Ruthven Deane in 1893 when he was delegated by Laval to Chicago for the opening of the Field Museum of Natural History
were instrumental to his election that year as fellow of the AOU.
In 1902, Laval granted him an honorary Master of Arts
degree. Between 1903 and 1907 he edited, with the help of Walter-Fournier Venner, a journal that aimed to compete with the Huard-edited Naturaliste Canadien, the Observateur Naturaliste. He wrote most material in the journal under various pseudonyms or anonymously, and although it is likely Huard knew about some of these articles, he might have never known about others. Between 1912 and 1924 there were several attempts spearheaded by Huard to have Dionne elected to the Royal Society of Canada
Academy of Science, but all failed. This has often been blamed on racism
on the part of the primarily English-speaking scientific section (Huard at the time was the sole French-speaking member, Léon Abel Provancher
and other scientists had been elected to the Academy of Arts and Humanities as writers to get around this problem), but a turn in recognition from the "learned amateurs" of the 19th century to the formal academics cannot be entirely discounted. Despite his large knowledge and numerous contacts, Dionne overall rarely travelled outside his home city, and even less frequently left the country, although he travelled to New York
in 1911 and toured Europe
in 1912. In 1919 he was involved in the foundation of the Société Léon-Provancher d'Histoire Naturelle du Canada.
Dionne died of illness in Quebec City on 25 January 1925, a mere few days after Laval granted him an honorary Doctor of Science
degree (he commented of it "They should have waited after my death."). He had had his right leg paralysed for some times after a nasty wound infection in 1919, and this was probably linked to his death.
. Les oiseaux du Canada, while well-received in the French community, received mixed reviews from English-language scholars, particularly Montague Chamberlain
, who deplored "its utter worthlessness as an authentic work". The precise amount of personal jealousy (Chamberlain was preparing his own Catalogue of Canadian Birds) and scientific concern (Dionne's work only truly covered Quebec, and used the soon-to-be obsolete classification of Coues) is difficult to assess. Coues himself, according to Dionne, wrote to commend his work.
The year 1902 saw the publication of Les mammifères de la province de Québec ("The Mammals of the Province of Quebec"), which was a commercial success and the first comprehensive French-language books about mammals in the province. Les oiseaux de la province de Québec was his major work and came out in 1906, garnering praise from Quebec and abroad for being up-to-date and comprehensive. It premiered French terminology
in Canada for ornithology and synthesised ornithological knowledge from a variety of sources, as well as providing consistent French names for all species. Dionne was particularly interested in geographical distribution
of birds, and this was reflected in the book's excellent coverage of that topic, thanks to Dionne's extensive notes and collected observations. The book would remain the only one to cover the province's avifauna so extensively for a long time, and was one of the first, if not the first North American state-based such book. In 1910, a paper on the spiders of Quebec was published separately.
In addition to his books, Dionne published a number of papers in The Auk
and the Naturaliste Canadien, as well as most material published in the three issues of his Observateur Naturaliste.
, Dionne was a driving force in making natural sciences, and particularly birds, of interest in a time when such research was not considered very important. His work was widely circulated in French Canada
for years after his death. In 2005, QuébecOiseaux, the province's federation of ornithological groups, began issuing a yearly prize named after him. He had a reputation of openness and readiness to help amongst learned and laymen alike.
Provancher named one species
of ichneumon
after Dionne, Tryphon dionnei, now called Monoblastus dionnei. Dionne's taxidermy work was appreciated and widely distributed, and his observations are important in tracing trends in bird population evolutions over time, such as those of the Passenger Pigeon
. It is possible that he prepared one of the last specimens of the species.
French Canadian
French Canadian or Francophone Canadian, , generally refers to the descendents of French colonists who arrived in New France in the 17th and 18th centuries...
naturalist and taxidermist. He is considered the first professional French Canadian ornithologist
Ornithology
Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the study of birds. Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and the aesthetic appeal of birds...
. Dionne was a self-taught scientist and wrote several books on the natural history
Natural history
Natural history is the scientific research of plants or animals, leaning more towards observational rather than experimental methods of study, and encompasses more research published in magazines than in academic journals. Grouped among the natural sciences, natural history is the systematic study...
of Quebec, including the first field guide to the province's mammal
Mammal
Mammals are members of a class of air-breathing vertebrate animals characterised by the possession of endothermy, hair, three middle ear bones, and mammary glands functional in mothers with young...
fauna; he was a well-respected scholar and became a fellow of the American Ornithologists' Union
American Ornithologists' Union
The American Ornithologists' Union is an ornithological organization in the USA. Unlike the National Audubon Society, its members are primarily professional ornithologists rather than amateur birders...
.
Biography
Dionne was born in 1846 to a modest rural family in Saint-Denis-de-la-BouteillerieSaint-Denis, Kamouraska, Quebec
Saint-Denis is a parish municipality in the Canadian province of Quebec, located in the Kamouraska Regional County Municipality.-Municipal council:* Mayor: Mireille Dionne-Bérubé...
, near Kamouraska
Kamouraska, Quebec
Kamouraska is a municipality on the south shore of the Saint Lawrence River in the Bas-Saint-Laurent region of Quebec, Canada. It is part of the Regional County Municipality of Kamouraska...
, the eldest of six boys and five girls born to Eusèbe Dionne and Amélie Lavoie. His father was a cobbler and farmer but the couple attached considerable importance to education, and Charles-Eusèbe displayed a thirst for knowledge from a young age, which was first noticed by his aunt Philomène. Philomène Dionne was the first to notice his affinity for natural history
Natural history
Natural history is the scientific research of plants or animals, leaning more towards observational rather than experimental methods of study, and encompasses more research published in magazines than in academic journals. Grouped among the natural sciences, natural history is the systematic study...
. Dionne captured and stuffed his first specimen at 14. After he had completed his elementary study, Philomène was the one who paid so he could benefit from private classes, where he came across a natural history book, an incident he would delight in recount in his later years, even though he could not remember the title.
At Laval
Dionne travelled to Quebec CityQuebec City
Quebec , also Québec, Quebec City or Québec City is the capital of the Canadian province of Quebec and is located within the Capitale-Nationale region. It is the second most populous city in Quebec after Montreal, which is about to the southwest...
in 1865 and, with the help of his cousin Zéphirin, who worked there, found work at the Séminaire de Québec. His predisposition was rapidly noticed and, having benefited from personal teaching sessions with Thomas-Étienne Hamel
Thomas-Étienne Hamel
Thomas-Étienne Hamel was a French-Canadian priest and academic. He was the son of Victor Hamel, a merchant and Therèse DeFoy....
, he was promoted from cook to a position at Université Laval
Université Laval
Laval University is the oldest centre of education in Canada and was the first institution in North America to offer higher education in French...
's (then administrated by the seminary
Seminary
A seminary, theological college, or divinity school is an institution of secondary or post-secondary education for educating students in theology, generally to prepare them for ordination as clergy or for other ministry...
) faculty of law. He became friend with historian and librarian Charles-Honoré Laverdière
Charles-Honoré Laverdière
Charles-Honoré Cauchon dit Laverdière was a French-Canadian priest and historian.-Biography:Laverdière was born in Château-Richer, East of Quebec City, on 23 October 1826. His parents, Charles Cauchon, dit Laverdière and Théotiste Cauchon, were farmers...
, and acquired from him scholarly techniques and instinct, all the while developing his knowledge and becoming an admirer of Léon Abel Provancher
Léon Abel Provancher
Léon Abel Provancher was a Canadian Catholic parish priest and naturalist. He studied at the College and Seminary of Nicolet, and was ordained 12 September 1844.-Life:He organized two pilgrimages to Jerusalem, one of which he conducted in person...
. He truly began to develop his natural history collections at that time. Unfortunately, his first attempts were of poor quality. It is possible that he acquired the basis for the techniques that would make his later fame from William Couper
William Couper (naturalist)
William Couper was an American entomologist and naturalist who came to prominence during the later half of the 19th century in Canada. The better known period of his life spans from the 1850s to 1886.-Biography:...
, a naturalist that resided in Quebec City during that period.
His knowledge in the various fields of natural sciences grew steadily thanks to the studies he did of his specimens, and the volumes he accessed through the university's library. He also followed classes at Laval and the Académie Commerciale of the Brothers of the Christian Schools
Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools
The Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools is a Roman Catholic religious teaching congregation, founded in France by Saint Jean-Baptiste de la Salle and now based in Rome...
. Having acquired knowledge of Latin and English, he could access a further wealth of knowledge. In 1873, Dionne was promoted deputy librarian to assist Laverdière, who couldn't keep up with the work. Laverdière died soon after and Dionne mourned a fellow academic and friend.
Marriage and the zoological museum
Dionne prowled the public markets for specimens, and attracted for himself the nickname of "Dionne l'empailleur" ("Dionne the stuffer"). He came to meet a fellow countryman, Guillaume-Wilfrid Pelletier, brother of his future wife Marie-Émélie, which he married on May 6, 1879; the couple had no children. The couple settled in an apartment on the second flour of Guillaume-Wilfrid's grocery. Dionne would gain further fame by regularly exposing his beautiful pieces in the front window of the store over the following decade. Pelletier, in return for the visibility, helped Dionne in his acquisitions. He died in July 1908.Dionne's major interests over the course of his career were ornithology
Ornithology
Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the study of birds. Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and the aesthetic appeal of birds...
, entomology
Entomology
Entomology is the scientific study of insects, a branch of arthropodology...
and taxidermy
Taxidermy
Taxidermy is the act of mounting or reproducing dead animals for display or for other sources of study. Taxidermy can be done on all vertebrate species of animals, including mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, and amphibians...
, although he wrote little about entomology. His renowned skills and amiable predisposition made him a prime candidate to become assistant-curator to François-Xavier Bélanger
François-Xavier Bélanger
François-Xavier Bélanger was a French-Canadian naturalist and museum curator. An autodidact like many naturalists of the time, he specialized in the study of Microlepidoptera...
at Laval's zoological museum. He was possibly more competent on the whole than Bélanger, though the later had dedicated his later life to the museum. In 1882, upon the death of the curator, Dionne was appointed in his place. He would help turn the collection into one of the finest in the province. That same year Dionne published his Les oiseaux du Canada and traveled in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence
Gulf of Saint Lawrence
The Gulf of Saint Lawrence , the world's largest estuary, is the outlet of North America's Great Lakes via the Saint Lawrence River into the Atlantic Ocean...
with J.-U. Gregory, of the Quebec City Marine Bureau, with the aim of helping build ichtyological collections, for which Gregory would thank him. Dionne would refer several times to this expedition in his book. By 1887, his personal entomological collections had grown to over 1,500 specimens; the museum's counted over 16,000 of insects and animals. Dionne talented taxidermy was again noticed when he exposed nearly four hundred specimens at the 1887 provincial fair
Fair
A fair or fayre is a gathering of people to display or trade produce or other goods, to parade or display animals and often to enjoy associated carnival or funfair entertainment. It is normally of the essence of a fair that it is temporary; some last only an afternoon while others may ten weeks. ...
, where he collected two prizes. That collection, or most of it, would be acquired by Dominique-Napoléon Saint-Cyr
Dominique-Napoléon Saint-Cyr
Dominique-Napoléon Saint-Cyr was a politician in Quebec, Canada and a two-term Member of the Legislative Assembly of Quebec .-Early life:He was born on August 4, 1826 in Nicolet, Centre-du-Québec and was an educator.-Political career:...
in 1889 and form the basis of the zoological collections of the Musée de l'Instruction Publique (now part of the Musée de la Civilisation
Musée de la civilisation
The Musée de la civilisation is a museum located in Quebec City. It is situated in old Québec near the Saint Lawrence River...
collection). Dionne subsequently remained the main taxidermist for the museum under Saint-Cyr's successors, and it was curator Victor-Alphonse Huard
Victor-Alphonse Huard
Victor-Alphonse Huard was a French-Canadian churchman, naturalist, writer and editor. He was a popular educator and promoter of the natural sciences, although his anti-evolutionist stance garnered him criticism both in Quebec and elsewhere...
who would later suggest his candidacy to the Royal Society.
Member of the American Ornithologists' Union
In 1889, Dionne completed and published (possibly having been spurred by a dispute with Newfoundland ornithologist Montague ChamberlainMontague Chamberlain
Montague Chamberlain was a Canadian-American businessman, naturalist, and ethnographer.Chamberlain was born in St. John, New Brunswick, Canada. He spent the first few decades of his life as a bookkeeper and later manager of a grocery company in St. John. In his mid-twenties, he also became a...
) a reorganization of his first book into a Catalogue des oiseaux de la Province de Québec avec des notes sur leur distribution géographique ("Catalogues of the birds of Quebec with notes on their distribution", generally referred as the Catalogue des oiseaux de la Province de Québec, or just Catalogue). The perceptive and up-to-date (it used the American Ornithologists' Union
American Ornithologists' Union
The American Ornithologists' Union is an ornithological organization in the USA. Unlike the National Audubon Society, its members are primarily professional ornithologists rather than amateur birders...
classification), if short on overall information, ouvrage garnered good reviews from specialists such as Elliott Coues
Elliott Coues
Elliott Coues was an American army surgeon, historian, ornithologist and author.Coues was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. He graduated at Columbian University, Washington, D.C., in 1861, and at the Medical school of that institution in 1863...
and Charles Foster Batchelder. Future president of the Union Jonathan Dwight
Jonathan Dwight
Jonathan Dwight V was an American ornithologist.-Life:Jonathan Dwight was born December 8, 1858 in New York City. His father was civil engineer Jonathan Dwight , grandfather Jonathan Dwight , great grandfather Jonathan Dwight , and great-great grandfather also named Jonathan Dwight , all part of...
noticed a very recent and subtle publication of his being taken into account and visited Dionne in 1891 to check on it. Dionne turned out to be right, and the two men struck up a friendship. This friendship and the one Dionne struck with Ruthven Deane in 1893 when he was delegated by Laval to Chicago for the opening of the Field Museum of Natural History
Field Museum of Natural History
The Field Museum of Natural History is located in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It sits on Lake Shore Drive next to Lake Michigan, part of a scenic complex known as the Museum Campus Chicago...
were instrumental to his election that year as fellow of the AOU.
In 1902, Laval granted him an honorary Master of Arts
Master of Arts (postgraduate)
A Master of Arts from the Latin Magister Artium, is a type of Master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The M.A. is usually contrasted with the M.S. or M.Sc. degrees...
degree. Between 1903 and 1907 he edited, with the help of Walter-Fournier Venner, a journal that aimed to compete with the Huard-edited Naturaliste Canadien, the Observateur Naturaliste. He wrote most material in the journal under various pseudonyms or anonymously, and although it is likely Huard knew about some of these articles, he might have never known about others. Between 1912 and 1924 there were several attempts spearheaded by Huard to have Dionne elected to the Royal Society of Canada
Royal Society of Canada
The Royal Society of Canada , may also operate under the more descriptive name RSC: The Academies of Arts, Humanities and Sciences of Canada , is the oldest association of scientists and scholars in Canada...
Academy of Science, but all failed. This has often been blamed on racism
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
on the part of the primarily English-speaking scientific section (Huard at the time was the sole French-speaking member, Léon Abel Provancher
Léon Abel Provancher
Léon Abel Provancher was a Canadian Catholic parish priest and naturalist. He studied at the College and Seminary of Nicolet, and was ordained 12 September 1844.-Life:He organized two pilgrimages to Jerusalem, one of which he conducted in person...
and other scientists had been elected to the Academy of Arts and Humanities as writers to get around this problem), but a turn in recognition from the "learned amateurs" of the 19th century to the formal academics cannot be entirely discounted. Despite his large knowledge and numerous contacts, Dionne overall rarely travelled outside his home city, and even less frequently left the country, although he travelled to New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
in 1911 and toured Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
in 1912. In 1919 he was involved in the foundation of the Société Léon-Provancher d'Histoire Naturelle du Canada.
Dionne died of illness in Quebec City on 25 January 1925, a mere few days after Laval granted him an honorary Doctor of Science
Doctor of Science
Doctor of Science , usually abbreviated Sc.D., D.Sc., S.D. or Dr.Sc., is an academic research degree awarded in a number of countries throughout the world. In some countries Doctor of Science is the name used for the standard doctorate in the sciences, elsewhere the Sc.D...
degree (he commented of it "They should have waited after my death."). He had had his right leg paralysed for some times after a nasty wound infection in 1919, and this was probably linked to his death.
Written works
Dionne's first major publication was his 1882 Les oiseaux du Canada ("The Birds of Canada"), which he dedicated to Provancher. It replaced a smaller, mostly outdated book published in 1860 by James MacPherson Le MoineJames MacPherson Le Moine
Sir James MacPherson Le Moine was a Canadian author and barrister.He was involved with the Literary and Historical Society of Quebec, helping in the development of their natural history museum, and later serving as president in 1871, 1879-1882, and 1902-1903.From 1894 to 1895, he was the president...
. Les oiseaux du Canada, while well-received in the French community, received mixed reviews from English-language scholars, particularly Montague Chamberlain
Montague Chamberlain
Montague Chamberlain was a Canadian-American businessman, naturalist, and ethnographer.Chamberlain was born in St. John, New Brunswick, Canada. He spent the first few decades of his life as a bookkeeper and later manager of a grocery company in St. John. In his mid-twenties, he also became a...
, who deplored "its utter worthlessness as an authentic work". The precise amount of personal jealousy (Chamberlain was preparing his own Catalogue of Canadian Birds) and scientific concern (Dionne's work only truly covered Quebec, and used the soon-to-be obsolete classification of Coues) is difficult to assess. Coues himself, according to Dionne, wrote to commend his work.
The year 1902 saw the publication of Les mammifères de la province de Québec ("The Mammals of the Province of Quebec"), which was a commercial success and the first comprehensive French-language books about mammals in the province. Les oiseaux de la province de Québec was his major work and came out in 1906, garnering praise from Quebec and abroad for being up-to-date and comprehensive. It premiered French terminology
Terminology
Terminology is the study of terms and their use. Terms are words and compound words that in specific contexts are given specific meanings, meanings that may deviate from the meaning the same words have in other contexts and in everyday language. The discipline Terminology studies among other...
in Canada for ornithology and synthesised ornithological knowledge from a variety of sources, as well as providing consistent French names for all species. Dionne was particularly interested in geographical distribution
Range (biology)
In biology, the range or distribution of a species is the geographical area within which that species can be found. Within that range, dispersion is variation in local density.The term is often qualified:...
of birds, and this was reflected in the book's excellent coverage of that topic, thanks to Dionne's extensive notes and collected observations. The book would remain the only one to cover the province's avifauna so extensively for a long time, and was one of the first, if not the first North American state-based such book. In 1910, a paper on the spiders of Quebec was published separately.
In addition to his books, Dionne published a number of papers in The Auk
The Auk
The Auk is a quarterly journal and the official publication of the American Ornithologists' Union, having been continuously published by that body since 1884. The journal contains articles relating scientific studies of the anatomy, behavior, and distribution of birds. The journal is named for the...
and the Naturaliste Canadien, as well as most material published in the three issues of his Observateur Naturaliste.
Influence and legacy
Alongside figures like Léon Provancher and Marie-VictorinMarie-Victorin
Brother Marie-Victorin was a De La Salle Christian Brother and botanist in Quebec, Canada, best known as the father of the Jardin botanique de Montréal....
, Dionne was a driving force in making natural sciences, and particularly birds, of interest in a time when such research was not considered very important. His work was widely circulated in French Canada
French Canada
French Canada, also known as "Lower Canada", is a term to distinguish the French Canadian population of Canada from English Canada.-Definition:...
for years after his death. In 2005, QuébecOiseaux, the province's federation of ornithological groups, began issuing a yearly prize named after him. He had a reputation of openness and readiness to help amongst learned and laymen alike.
Provancher named one species
Species
In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...
of ichneumon
Ichneumon
In medieval literature, the ichneumon or echinemon was the enemy of the dragon. When it sees a dragon, the ichneumon covers itself with mud, and closing its nostrils with its tail, attacks and kills the dragon. The ichneumon was also considered by some to be the enemy of the crocodile and the asp,...
after Dionne, Tryphon dionnei, now called Monoblastus dionnei. Dionne's taxidermy work was appreciated and widely distributed, and his observations are important in tracing trends in bird population evolutions over time, such as those of the Passenger Pigeon
Passenger Pigeon
The Passenger Pigeon or Wild Pigeon was a bird, now extinct, that existed in North America and lived in enormous migratory flocks until the early 20th century...
. It is possible that he prepared one of the last specimens of the species.