Delacour, Jean Theodore

Delacour, Jean Theodore

(born , Sept. 26, 1890, Paris, Fr.—died Nov. 5, 1985, Los Angeles, Calif., U.S.) French-born U.S. aviculturist. After his boyhood collection of more than 1,300 live birds was destroyed during World War I, he made expeditions worldwide and assembled a huge new collection at the Château de Clères in Normandy. He bred pheasants in captivity, discovered and named many new bird and mammal species, founded the magazine L'Oiseau (1920), and wrote the standard work The Birds of French Indochina (1931). When the Germans again destroyed his aviary, he emigrated to the U.S., but he later reestablished his aviary and zoo at Clères.