François Pollen

Together with his companion Douwe Casparus van Dam (1827–1898) he made an expedition to Madagascar which lasted from November 1863 to July 1866.

They collected insects, fish, birds, and mammals for the Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie in Leiden.

Subsequently, he also financed the field work of other naturalists on Madagascar without being directly involved.

In 1875 Pollen was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Georg-August University of Göttingen, Germany.

In the same year he described the Réunion cuckooshrike (Coracina newtoni ) and again with Schlegel the vanga genus Newtonia in 1868.