On June 6th, 1829, Allan Octavian Hume was born. He would later become known as the Father of Indian Ornithology. He traveled India to document the birdlife and in doing so amassed a large collection of specimens of birds. This collection of 82,000 birds from 258 species ended (mostly) up in The British Museum.
Hume discovered and described a laundry list of species including Mrs. Hume’s Barredback Pheasant and Hume’s Owl. We celebrate Hume’s work in the field of ornithology, even though India is far away!
