Robert Ritter von Dombrowski
Already during his youth in Austria DOMBROWSKI started to collect mainly birds on the Balkan peninsular, especially in Romania. Having been taught taxidermy at the NMW Vienna he went to Romania and soon became curator of the natural history museum and director of the zoological garden there. Between 1895 and 1916 he worked at the museum in Bukarest and used his firm -Dermoplast. - Mus. Inst. Dobrudscha supplying natural history dealers world wide with bird skins. As ornithologist he became well known through his main work Ornis Romaniae (1912). As consequences of the First World War he lost all his possessions. He returned to Vienna and later worked in Luków, Poland, as taxidermist. In 1929 he settled in Vienna, Laxenburg again and died after a toxic snake bite in poverty.
His elder brother Ernst (1862-1917) was an ardent hunter and regularly published about his expeditions through Europe.
Lit.:
DOMBROWKSKI R. (1912): Ornis Romaniae.
FLORCZAK M., 1967: Biographie von Robert Dombrowski und seine Beziehungen zu Polen (polnisch). - Przeglad Zool. 11,3: 201-201 (+ Bild).
GEBHARDT L., 1964: Die Ornithologen Mitteleuropas. Giessen. 76 ff.
GEBHARDT L., 1970: Die Ornithologen Mitteleuropas. - Bd. 2. J. Orn. 111, Sh. 156 f.
SCH(USTER) L., 1933: Robert v. Dombrowski +. - Beitr. Fortpfl.biol. Vögel 9, S. 55.
Biografie Robert Ritter von Dombrowski (Gebhardt L., 1964, Die Ornithologen Mitteleuropas)