page_title: Andrew Bloxam
section_title: Bloxam's contribution as a naturalist
hierarchical_section_title: Andrew Bloxam / Voyage of the Blonde / Bloxam's contribution as a naturalist
caption_attribution_description: Oahu Akepa (Loxops coccineus wolstenholmei) depiction by John Gerrard Keulemans from 'The Avifauna of Laysan and the neighbouring islands with a complete history to date of the birds of the Hawaiian possession.' by Walter Rothschild from the years 1893 to 1900
context_page_description: Andrew Bloxam was an English clergyman and naturalist; in his later life he had a particular interest in botany. He was the naturalist on board HMS Blonde during its voyage around South America and the Pacific in 1824–26, where he collected mainly birds. Later as a Church of England minister he lived in Warwickshire and Leicestershire and made significant contributions to the study of the natural history of the area. His special interest was in fungi and the genera Rubus and Rosa. His botanical author abbreviation is "A.Bloxam".
context_section_description: Although in later life, Bloxam was a noted mycologist and botanist and named c. 20 species of fungi and plants (see below), his contributions during the voyage were mainly to ornithology. At the time of the voyage of the Blonde, he was young and inexperienced. According to Macrae's diary (as edited by Wilson), "Andrew Bloxom [sic] acted as a sort of amateur naturalist on the Blonde"; the diary contains other disparaging remarks about Bloxam. Maria Graham (later Maria Callcott) took a somewhat different view: "For the few notices concerning natural history which the work [i.e. her book] contains, it is chiefly indebted to the zealous attention of Mr. A. Bloxam [..] who, if not a learned naturalist, deserves the praise of a diligent and sensible collector." She is in turn critical of Macrae, saying that she regretted that "the practised collector of botanical specimens who went in the Blonde to the Sandwich Islands should not have furnished any account of the plants [..] which he collected."
  For a long time the only published record of Bloxam's naturalising during the voyage was a very short section in Graham's book. Only in 1925 was his diary published. Between 1986 and 1996, Olson published detailed studies of Bloxam's ornithological work in the Hawaiian Islands, based on both the diary and unpublished notebooks. Although Olson echoes criticisms of Bloxam ("the ship's callow, humble, and none too ardent naturalist"), he also says that those descriptions which Bloxam did produce are of "commendable accuracy" and that the methods he used to prepare specimens ensured that they survived in "remarkably good condition".
  Having been appointed by the Admiralty, on his return Bloxam had written to thank them and to give an account of the specimens he had collected. A barrel contained geological and mineralogical specimens, along with insects, shells and other marine objects from South America and the Pacific islands visited by the Blonde. Two cases contained "about one hundred" specimens of birds.  Of these, 27 specimens of 11 species were from the Hawaiian Islands.
  One of Bloxam's most well-known bird collections was the Oahu thrush, which he originally called Turdus woahensis (now Myadestes lanaiensis woahensis). Bloxam's 1825 specimens are the only ones in existence, since this rather dull olive-brown thrush-like bird was the first bird species in the Hawaiian islands to become extinct. Bloxam recorded that it was common and that its "melodious notes" came from the only songster on the island of Oahu. Another of his scientific discoveries was the Oahu ʻakepa, which he named Fringilla rufa (now Loxops wolstenholmei or L. coccineus wolstenholmei). This bird too is now extinct.
  
  Bloxam also noticed that the Hawaiian nectar-feeding birds were different from both humming birds and the genus with which they were then associated, Certhia (creepers). He put them into a new genus Nectarina and wrote that in their flight they resembled finches. It was some 150 years later that it was accepted that the Hawaiian honeycreepers (now in several different genera) had evolved from cardueline finches.
  In 1995, Olson named the greater Patagonian conure after Bloxam (Cyanoliseus patagonus bloxami). Bloxam collected a specimen in 1825 near Concepcion, Chile.
caption: The Oahu ʻakepa, first discovered for science by Bloxam
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