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Орнитологичните колекции на Националния природонаучен музей при БАН [Ornithological collections of the National Museum of Natural History at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences]


Златозар Боев [Zlatozar Boev]

27 December 1991 · volume 3 · pp. 37–48 · PDF [full text]

Abstract: [no abstract available originally]

[Summary]: The National Museum of Natural History is one of the museums with the largest ornithological collections in Southeast Europe. The first acquisition since its establishment in 1889 were about 900 bird specimens from the collection of Comte Amédée Alléon in 1892. Another 300 specimens were purchased from Emil Holub, the Czech naturalist, together with 2100 specimens of bird skins from the Indian collection of the British ornithologist Stuart Baker in 1901. By 1907 the museum already had in its collections 8229 bird specimens from 1538 species, 2210 bird eggs and 45 nests. In 1921 the 314 bird species known for the fauna of Bulgaria were also represented in collections. A new ornithological exposition was made in 1938 in the new museum building. The appointment of Pavel Patev to the post of Curator of Birds considerably contributed to the enrichment of the collection. For a decade (1928-1938) he collected over 9000 bird specimens from Bulgaria, which became the basis of his monograph “The Birds of Bulgaria” (1950). The considerable archives of the Bulgarian Ornithological Center at the Museum and part of the collections suffered from the air-raids during the Second World War. After the War between 1948 and 1962 over 1100 bird specimens were added, the exposition was restored and improved. The exposition was closed to the public between 1964 and 1968, and part of the exhibition area was turned to other uses. Plans for a new exposition were drawn up in 1962 and later in 1974, however their realisation only began in 1983. Without reducing the number of exhibited species the numbers of exhibits was brought down by 5,5 times, improving lay-out of the exhibition through explanatory texts, diagrams and maps of distribution. An osteological collection was created in the museum in 1980, which by August 1989 had gathered over 800 skeletons of over 220 bird species. Museum bird collections have been used by Bulgarian and a number of foreign ornithologists and are solid basis for ornithological research in Bulgaria.

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