PAOLO MANTEGAZZA E GLI UCCELLI DEL CIELO

Abstract

The earliest interest of Paolo Mantegazza in bird biology was expressed as an attention to the world of ornamental bird breeders. Later on, Mantegazza was so deeply fascinated by Riccardo Stradi’s research on bird feather’s pigments to sponsor a magnificent University annual book just dedicated to this theme. At the same time he became very much interested and openly supported the establishment of a new ornithological station at Albonico, a supporting institution that readily produced several degree theses in biological and /or natural sciences and, in addition, several research papers on special ecological themes regarding . the life history of song birds. The success of the above cited station also suggested to try to save the old Milan zoo by establishing a zoo research station on the model of the corresponding institutions of the Milan aquarium and natural history museum. The project was discussed in comparison with the Jersey Wildlife Preservation Trust, and, as such, was strongly supported by Mantegazza, but due to a political change of the Miano city hall administration, it was suddenly rejected while the whole work done up to that point was completely lost. The unfortunate story of the Milan zoo was shortly followed by a much luckier one, regarding the study of the parrot language. With the moral and material help of Mantegazza, a number of African parrots were even hosted in an especially built glass structure within the domain of the Department of Pharmacology. In addition, they were also studied on the field in a series of short expeditions to Tanzania and Uganda. The results of these activities were summarized in a numbers of papers and books. A special memory is also worth about the world list of the Italian bird names, a project that was started almost as a semantic joke and was subsequently so much developed to suggest to ask to our Rector (and readily obtain) a University contribution for its publication. The resulting bird name list was even worth a Crusca Academy praise and was extensively adopted since its publication in the popular ornithological literature in the Italian language. The first paper print, delivered in 1993, was followed by a second paper print in the year 2000 and, more recently, by an electronic version enriched by introductory texts to orders and families as well as by several pictures by a number of photographers. In summary, Paolo Mantegazza was deeply interested in bird biology and encouraged/sponsored a number of researches and cultural events on this topic within the University of Milano.