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5 unusual facts about Jemima Blackburn


Jemima Blackburn

She describes the ejection of nestling Meadow Pipits (Anthus pratensis) by a blind and naked hatchling Common Cuckoo (Cuculus canorus), accompanied by a small drawing.

Her Roshven home became the focus of visits from some of the most celebrated figures of the century, including the Duke of Argyll, Lord Kelvin, Lord Lister, Hermann von Helmholtz, John Ruskin, Sir John Everett Millais, Anthony Trollope and Benjamin Disraeli.

This behavior had been reported by Jenner in 1788 but dismissed as impossible by Charles Waterton in 1836.

Charles Darwin refers to Mrs. Blackburn’s observations in the sixth edition of On the Origin of Species.

The youngest daughter of James Wedderburn, Solicitor General for Scotland, and a first cousin of James Clerk Maxwell, Jemima was a friend and pupil of John Ruskin and Sir Edwin Landseer, both of whom praised her work highly.



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