Francesco Chigi Della Rovere, civic ornithologist and pioneer of conservation, at 90 years from his “La morte delle specie animali” (The death of animal species)

Relatively little has been written about the ornithological and conservation work of Francesco Chigi Della Rovere, a prominent figure in Rome in the first half of the twentieth century. To reevaluate his pioneering work in the field of bird conservation, we remember the 90th anniversary of his valuable, but little-known, contribution to the topic of animal extinction published in his own journal, Rassegna Faunistica. Although absolutely preliminary, the present contribution has the merit of placing Chigi in the historical context of the “new ornithology” that emerged in Germany in the 1920s, as well as in the international bird protection movement, which has clearly Anglo-Saxon roots.