Alexander Gordon Melville (1819–1901): the Dodo, Raphus cucullatus (L., 1758) and the genesis of a book

Abstract

Alexander Gordon Melville was a significant, independent and controversial nineteenth century Irish-born academic who became the first Professor of Natural History at Queen's College (later University College) Galway. He built an early reputation as a comparative anatomist at Edinburgh and Oxford. However, it was his collaboration with Hugh Edwin Strickland which brought him to a wider audience with the publication of an important book on the Dodo and other extinct birds. After moving to Ireland he worked on marine invertebrates but published little and his early promise was never fulfilled.