James Bond, 89; Ornithologist’s Name Made Famous in Fiction

A world-famous ornithologist, whose name became synonymous with secret agentry because of a chance literary encounter with Ian Fleming, has died.

The real James Bond, unlike his fictional counterpart, lived 89 peaceful years before dying of the complications of age Tuesday at a hospital in Philadelphia.

Bond, former curator of ornithology at the Academy of Natural Sciences, was the leading authority on birds of the West Indies for more than half a century and is best known for proving that birds of the Caribbean originated in North America, not South America.

In recognition of this discovery, the geographic line dividing Caribbean birds of North American ancestry from those of South American origins has been called “Bond’s Line.”

But his name was to become a household synonym for intrigue after World War II because Fleming was reading his book, “Birds of the West Indies,” while writing at his home in Jamaica.

Fleming, an avid bird watcher, adopted the ornithologist’s name for the dashing character since portrayed in movies by Sean Connery, Roger Moore and other actors.

“It struck me that this brief, unromantic, Anglo-Saxon and yet very masculine name was just what I needed, and so a second James Bond was born,” Fleming wrote years later to Bond’s wife, Mary.

“In return I can only offer you or James Bond unlimited use of the name Ian Fleming for any purposes you may think fit,” he wrote. “Perhaps one day your husband will discover a particularly horrible species of bird which he would like to christen in an insulting fashion by calling it Ian Fleming.”