Science Art: Wattles of Cock Tragopans, by William Beebe, from A Monograph on Pheasants, 1918-1922.

The artist and writer William Beebe is better known for his deep sea explorations than his wattle portraiture. He studied at Columbia, but spent too much time exploring and collecting specimens to earn a degree there. Instead, he became a lecturer and employee of the Bronx Zoo. In 1916, he set up a research station in South America that got the attention of Theodore Roosevelt. When Teddy visited Kalacoon and wrote about the place for Scribner’s, it kept the station running – at least long enough for Beebe to bring home the first hoatzin (a bird with clawed wings) studied in North America.

Since he did so well with one pheasant relative, he wound up spending the next few years roving around the world documenting all the world’s pheasants. He made it home in time to train pilots for World War I, eventually becoming an aerial photographer – which possibly prepared him for his later work in The Bathysphere. He always loved the jungle, though, and at the end of his life returned to study insects at a research station he founded in Trinidad named Simla – one that’s still in operation today, four decades after Beebe’s death.

These birds here are pheasants. They’re tragopans, also known as “horny pheasants,” in part because of the fleshy horns on their heads. There’s probably more to it, though, since one species is named “satyr tragopan” and the genus gets its name from billy goat (tragus) and Pan. Those courtship displays must really be something.

Image from Wikimedia Commons, found via [Scientific Illustration].