According to David Steadman it is possible that the 1774 painting by Georg Forster which depicts a mysterious bird from the island of Raiatea (formerly known as Ulieta) is not of a thrush or a honeyeater, as previously hypothesised, but of a relative of the Huahine Starling.
Georg Forster (1754-1794), born in Hochzeit (Nassenhuben) naturalist and revolutionary
Pisonia umbellifera (J.R.Forst. & G.Forst.) Seem. – Umbrella Catchbirdtree (Indo-Pacific)
The better-known was a female which was sketched by Georg Forster at Tanna during the second circumnavigation by James Cook to the South Sea in August 1774.
It is known only from brief descriptions of a specimen, now lost, collected from Tongatapu in 1777 in the course of James Cook’s third voyage to the Pacific, and from a contemporary illustration by Georg Forster.
Georg Solti | Georg Philipp Telemann | Johann Georg Wagler | Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel | Robert Forster | Georg Trakl | Georg Forster | Georg Cantor | Georg Büchner | Georg Baselitz | Hans-Georg Backhaus | E. M. Forster | Marc Forster | Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group | Forster | Barthold Georg Niebuhr | Georg Büchner Prize | Georg August Schweinfurth | Robert Forster (musician) | Johann Georg Faust | Henry Forster, 1st Baron Forster | Georg Haupt | Georg Ehrnrooth | Georg Curtius | Georg Brandes | William Edward Forster | John Forster | Georg Wilhelm Steller | Georg Schramm | Georg Richard Lewin |
In 1891, German botanist Otto Kuntze challenged the generic name Banksia L.f., on the grounds that the name Banksia had previously been published in 1775 as Banksia J.R.Forst & G.Forst, referring to the genus now known as Pimelea.
The collection consists of approximately 17,000 items and focuses on the South Pacific with the Cook-Forster collection, containing items from Hawaii, Tahiti, Tonga, and New Zealand, and on Siberia and the polar regions with the Baron von Asch collection.