William Richard Fisher (1824–1888) and the controversy about Paget’s pochard ( <i>Aythya ferina</i>  ×  <i>nyroca</i> )

The study of natural avian hybridization has a chequered history; ignored or marginalized by many, but at times studied in considerable detail by a few. The discovery of an unknown duck in the English county of Norfolk in the 1840s provoked much discussion among British ornithologists regarding its status as a species or hybrid and led to conflicting views on appropriate nomenclature. William Richard Fisher of Great Yarmouth, a naturalist and artist, was much involved in these initial deliberations and, together with Abraham Dee Bartlett, was responsible in 1847 for declaring this duck a distinct species named Ferina ferinoides (now Aythya ferina × nyroca) with the vernacular name of Paget’s pochard. The discovery of similar specimens elsewhere in Europe in the 1850s also stimulated considerable interest from ornithologists such as Friedrich Wilhelm Justus Bädeker and Jean Baptiste Marie Jaubert, both of whom provided scientific names, being unaware of events in Britain. The Italian ornithologist, Ettore Arrigoni degli Oddi, was perhaps the most vigorous pursuer of Paget’s pochard, travelling extensively in Britain and on the continent to examine specimens. This paper traces the circumstances in which the curiosity of notable ornithologists in Britain and mainland Europe was aroused by Paget’s pochard, thereby reflecting the waxing and waning of interest in, and prevailing views on, natural hybridization among birds since the second half of the nineteenth century.