Bernard du Bus de Gisignies
Jonkheer Bernard Amé Léonard du Bus de Gisignies was a Dutch nobleman and later on a Belgian politician, ornithologist and paleontologist. He was the second son of Leonard Pierre Joseph du Bus de Gisignies. He married Petronilla Truyts on 19 May 1845, together they had two children; Viscount Bernard Daniel and Viscount Chretien.
He studied law at the State University of Louvain, but soon became more interested in ornithology. In 1835 he presented a manuscript to the Royal Academy of Belgium in which described the bird Leptorhynchus pectoralis. He was a member of parliament for Soignies.
He became the first director of the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences in 1846. On this occasion he donated 2474 birds from his own collection to the museum. In 1860, during the construction of new fortifications around Antwerp he became involved in paleontology. The fossils found were mainly from whales. He also obtained the skeletons from a bowhead whale and a young blue whale, which are still on display in the museum. In 1860 the skeleton of a mammoth was found near Lier and was brought to the museum. At that time the only other skeleton of a mammoth was on display in the museum of Saint Petersburg.
In 1867 he became the director of the science section of the Royal Academy of Belgium.
