Some Biogeographers, Evolutionists and Ecologists:
Chrono-Biographical Sketches

Munro, George Campbell (New Zealand-United States 1866-1963)
ornithology, conservation

Although information on Munro is scarce, it appears he emigrated to Hawaii in 1890 when he was hired to assist Henry C. Palmer in collecting birds for Lord Walter Rothschild. Palmer eventually returned to Australia but Munro stayed and later became the well-known manager of a cattle ranch that covered the whole island of Lanai. Fairly early on Munro recognized that his adopted home was beginning to suffer from erosional and other kinds of environmental degradation, and for the rest of his life he made both botanical and zoological conservation his leading cause. As an ornithologist he is remembered for his book Birds of Hawaii, made all the more valuable for its description of the habits of many forms now extinct, and known almost only through Munro's own field observations.

--born in New Zealand, on 10 May 1866.
--1890: moves to Hawaii as ornithological assistant to Henry C. Palmer, a collector
--1918: initiates protection of areas on Lanai
--1939: made a member of the American Ornithologists' Union
--1944: publishes his Birds of Hawaii
--1945: made an elective member of the American Ornithologists' Union
--1960: publishes a revised edition of his Birds of Hawaii
--dies at Honolulu, Hawaii, on 4 December 1963.

--The Auk, Vol. 81(2) (1964): 256.