Pat Nuttall laboratory reagent, a result that was published in "Nature" in 1977. She then worked with ornithologist Chris Perrins trying to identify the virus responsible for puffinosis, a disease that affects the Manx shearwater ("Puffinus puffinus") sea bird. During this research, Nuttall visited sea-bird colonies and became interested in ticks, arthropods that often infest sea birds as well as other vertebrates, and can act as vectors for disease. In the early 1980s, Nuttall started to study viruses transmitted by ticks, initially focusing on orbiviruses, nairoviruses and thogotoviruses. While performing experiments designed to explore whether "Thogoto virus", an influenza-like virus, can be
Ron Scarlett the New Zealand owlet-nightjar, the Scarlett's duck (which was named by Storrs L. Olson), and the Hodgens' waterhen. The Scarlett's shearwater ("Puffinus spelaeus") described in 1994 by Richard N. Holdaway and Trevor H. Worthy is named in his honour too. Ron Scarlett belong to the founders of the New Zealand Archaeological Association which was established in 1954. He was also a member of the Ornithological Society of New Zealand where he has frequently written contributions for the quarterly scientific journal, "Notornis". In 1996 he was awarded an MBE for his services to science. Scarlett died at age 91 on 9