Walter Faxon

{{Short description|American ornithologist and carcinologist}} {{Use mdy dates|date=April 2025}} {{Infobox person/Wikidata|fetchwikidata=ALL|dateformat=mdy}}

'''Walter Faxon''' (February 4, 1848 – August 10, 1920) was an American ornithologist and carcinologist. He was born at Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, where he grew up. He received three degrees from Harvard University. One of his greater ornithological achievements was demonstration that Brewster's warbler is a hybrid.<ref name=bio/>

He spent many years researching and classifying many American crayfish, including the genera ''Astacus'', ''Orconectes'', and ''Procambarus'',<ref name=taxonomy/><ref name=descriptions>{{cite book |last=Faxon |first=Walter |date=1884 |title=Descriptions of New Species of Cambarus |url=https://archive.org/details/descriptionsofne00faxo |location=Biodiversity Heritage Library |publisher=Boston : Metcalf and Co. |access-date=23 May 2014}}</ref> and contributed to at least 20 different scientific papers.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/creator/8442/author#/titles |title= By Faxon, Walter, 1848-1920|author= |website=biodiversitylibrary.org |access-date=23 May 2014}}</ref> Following a 2017 review, carried out by Oxford University, the former ''Faxonius'' subgenus of ''Orconectes'' was raised to a full genus as the subgenera were not monophyletic.<ref name=oxford>{{Cite web| title=''An updated classification of the freshwater crayfishes (Decapoda: Astacidea) of the world, with a complete species list'' | url=https://academic.oup.com/jcb/article/37/5/615/4060680| website=Oxford Academic| accessdate=2020-08-24}}</ref> The genus ''Faxonella'' is similarly named to honour Faxon.

==References== <references>

<ref name=bio>{{cite journal |author=W. M. T. |journal=The Auk |volume=38 |issue=1 |pages=157–158 |year=1921 |title=Notes and news |url=http://sora.unm.edu/node/12257 |doi=10.2307/4074078|jstor=4074078 |doi-access=free }}</ref> <ref name=taxonomy>{{cite journal |author=Hobbs, Horton H. |journal=Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology |volume=166 | pages=70 | year=1974 |title=A Checklist of the North and Middle American Crayfishes (Decapoda: Astacidae and Cambaridae) |url=http://www.sil.si.edu/smithsoniancontributions/zoology/pdf_hi/SCTZ-0166.pdf}}</ref>

</references>

{{DEFAULTSORT:Faxon, Walter}} Category:American carcinologists Category:American ornithologists Category:1848 births Category:1920 deaths Category:Harvard University alumni Category:People from Jamaica Plain Category:Scientists from Boston Category:19th-century American zoologists Category:20th-century American zoologists