Alfred Malherbe

Alfred Malherbe (14 July 1804 – 14 August 1865) was a French magistrate and amateur naturalist born in Mauritius to family originally from Metz. He was the administrator of the Museum of Metz (being its director until 1863).

He devoted his spare time to botany and zoology (especially ornithology). He conducted studies of birds of Algeria (describing numerous species) and Sicily.^[1]

Malherbe was the author of Monographie des picidées (1859–62, 4 vols.). He identified Levaillant's woodpecker, which was named for another French scientist, François Le Vaillant. In addition to Monographie des picidées, he was the author of several other ornithological works:

• Faune ornithologique de la Sicile : avec des observations sur l'habitat ou l'apparition des oiseaux de cetté ile, etc. (1843) - Ornithological fauna of Sicily.
• Description de dix espéces nouvelles du genre Picus, Linné., (1845) - Description of ten new species from the genus Picus.
• Faune ornithologique de l'Algérie (1855) - Ornithological fauna of Algeria.^[2]

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