Joseph Pons d'Arnaud explained

Théodore Louis Joseph-Pons d'Arnaud (1811-1884) was a French civil engineer, geographer and naturalist. In 1830 he was hired by the government of Egypt to work on irrigation projects. In 1840-41 he participated in an expedition raised by the Pasha of Egypt that searched (unsuccessfully) for the source of the White Nile. In 1841-42 he explored in the Sudan on an expedition led by Binbashi (Major) Selim, a Turkish officer in the Marine d'Alexandrie. Further voyages of exploration took him to Ethiopia and Yemen (1843) and the Sudan (1860).^{[1] [2]}

In 1844 d'Arnaud was awarded the Grande Médaille d'Or des Explorations (gold medal for exploration) by French Geographical Society. In 1856 he was appointed as a Lieutenant colonel in an Egyptian regiment.

D'Arnaud authored a book on the aquatic plants of the Upper Nile. Two bird species are named in his honour: D'Arnaud's barbet, an East African insectivorous bird, and the Grey-capped social weaver, Pseudonigrita arnaudi.^{[3] [4]}

Notes and References

1. d'Arnaud . Joseph . 1e Lettre de M. d'Arnaud à M. Jomard, membre de l'Institut . Bulletin de la Société de géographie . 1842 . 376–379 . 29 July 2021.
2. Castelli . E. . Origine des collections ethnographiques soudanaises dans les musées français (1800-1878) . Journal des Africanistes . 1984 . 54 . 1 . 102 . 10.3406/jafr.1984.2058 . 29 July 2021.
3. Book: Beolens . Bo . Watkins . Michael . Grayson . Michael . The Eponym Dictionary of Birds . 2014 . Bloomsbury . London . 978-1-4729-0573-4 . 341–342.
4. Book: Tvedt . Terje . A bibliography on the River Nile . 2008 . BRIC Press . Bergen . 978-82-7453-074-4 . 35, 338–339, 481 . 29 July 2021.