Ian J. Mason
Encyclopedia
Ian J. Mason is an Australia
n ornithologist
and taxonomist
who is Senior Collection Manager for the Australian National Wildlife Collection
. He is an authority on oology
.
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n 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...
and taxonomist
Taxonomy
Taxonomy is the science of identifying and naming species, and arranging them into a classification. The field of taxonomy, sometimes referred to as "biological taxonomy", revolves around the description and use of taxonomic units, known as taxa...
who is Senior Collection Manager for the Australian National Wildlife Collection
Australian National Wildlife Collection
The Australian National Wildlife Collection is a collection of almost 200,000 zoological specimens, including skeletons, skins, spirit specimens, birds’ eggs, frozen tissue samples and a wildlife sound library, mainly of vertebrate animals from Australia and Papua New Guinea, which are stored in a...
. He is an authority on oology
Oology
Oology is a branch of ornithology studying bird eggs, nests and breeding behavior. Oology can also refer to the hobby of collecting wild birds' eggs, sometimes called birdnesting or egging, which is now illegal in many jurisdictions.-As a science:Oology became increasingly popular in Britain and...
.
Publications
As well as writing numerous scientific papers, Mason has collaborated on several books about birds.- 1980 – Nocturnal Birds of Australia. (With Richard SchoddeRichard SchoddeRichard Schodde, OAM is an Australian botanist and ornithologist.Schodde studied at the University of Adelaide where he received a BSc in 1960 and a PhD in 1970. During the 1960s he was a botanist with the CSIRO Division of Land Research and Regional Survey in Papua New Guinea...
. Illustrations by Jeremy Boot). Lansdowne Editions: Melbourne. (Whitley MedalWhitley Awards (Australia)The Whitley Awards have been awarded annually since 1979 by the Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales . They commemorate Gilbert Whitley, an eminent Australian ichthyologist, and are presented for outstanding publications, either printed or electronic, that contain new information about the...
1981). - 1997 – Zoological Catalogue of Australia: Aves (Columbidae to Coraciidae) v. 37. 2. (With Richard Schodde). CSIRO Publishing. ISBN 0643060375
- 1998 – CSIRO List of Australian Vertebrates: A Reference with Conservation Status. (With Richard Schodde, M. Stanger, M Clayton, and J. Wombey). CSIRO Publishing. ISBN 0643062564
- 1999 – The Directory of Australian Birds: Passerines. A taxonomic and zoogeographic atlas of the biodiversity of birds of Australia and its territories. (With Richard Schodde). CSIRO Publishing. ISBN 0-643-06456-7