BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES 



OF THE 



PRINCIPAL ESSEX ORNITHOLOGISTS. 



ABDY, Sir Robert, third baronet, of Albins, in Stapleford 

 Abbots, Essex, seems to have been interested in birds, and 

 to have been a patron of Eleazar Albin, to whom he sent a 

 number of specimens from time to time. Albin accordingly dedi- 

 cated to him the first and second volumes of his Natural History 

 of Birds (3. — 1731-38). According to Morant, he was " a man of 

 deep knowledge in antiquity and natural history, a great connois- 

 seur in medals, of which he had a fine collection, and, what is more 

 valuable, a true patriot and a person of unshaken integrity and 

 remarkable humanity." 



ATKINSON, Rev. J. C, was born in 1814 at Goldhanger, of 

 which place his father, the Rev. John Atkinson {q.v.), was curate. 

 He is an excellent ornithologist, as might have been expected 

 from the fact that both his father and grandfather were fond of 

 the study. The days of his boyhood were spent in the district 

 around Goldhanger, Great Wigborough, Little Wigborough, Peldon, 

 Tollesbury, Mersea, &:c., and he thus had unrivalled facilities for 

 becoming intimately acquainted with the birds frequenting that 

 part of the Essex coast, opportunities of which he made excellent 

 use. He also resided in, or by means of visits became familiar with, 

 Eardfield, Finchingfield, Gosfield, Colchester, Maldon, and other 

 parts of Essex. Many notes of his on the ornithology of our coast 

 may be found in the early volumes of the Zoologist. In short, the 

 first twenty-four years of Mr. Atkinson's life, allowing for university 

 residence, were spent in Essex. He afterwards resided in Suffolk, 

 Herefordshire, and Berkshire. In or about 1846, he became Vicar 

 of Danby, near Grosmont, Yorkshire, where he still resides. He has 



