529 
his profession. A memoir of his life has been printed by Mr. John 
Britton, with a print from a picture by Sir T. Lawrence, 1834. 
NicHoLas AYLMER Vicors, Hsq., M.A., Honorary D.C.L., F.R.S., 
M.R.I.A., F.S.A., F.L.S., F.H.S., F.G.S., M.R.L, M.P., &c., was 
in 1803 admitted a Gentleman Commoner of Trinity College, Ox- 
ford, in which his son is now a graduate; but before the expira- 
tion of sufficient time for taking a degree, he became an officer 
in the Guards, and served with the army in Spain. 
Returning to Oxford, he took his first degree of B.A. in 1817, 
and M.A. in 1818, and in 1832 was created an Honorary D.C.L. 
The department of science to which Mr. Vigors particularly 
devoted himself was Ornithology; but although not much versed 
in the researches of positive Geology, he duly appreciated the 
value of our science in its relation to Zoology, as supplying a large 
contingent to the whole amount of the animal kingdom; fully 
feeling how imperfect every view of Zoology must necessarily be 
that takes no account of that large extinct portion of the several 
classes of animals, of which our only knowledge must be derived 
from Paleontology. 
In 1825 Mr. Vigors was one of the most efficient fellow-labourers 
with Sir Stamford Raffles and Sir H. Davy, in laying the founda- 
tion of the Zoological Society of London, a Society which has 
now its agents and correspondents in every quarter of the world ; 
and by his zealous and active co-operation with the first members 
of this Society, in the office of secretary during its earliest years 
(from 1826 to 1833), he has been largely instrumental in accelera- 
ting the recent rapid diffusion of exact knowledge in Zoology 
throughout the country. 
At the formation of the museum of the Zoological Society, he 
presented to it the whole of his valuable collection; an act of 
liberality which was duly acknowledged by the Society, when, in 
1833, he resigned the office of secretary to attend to the duties of 
his seat in parliament. 
Before the foundation of the Zoological Society, he was a most 
active promoter of the Zoological Club of the Linnean Society, 
established Nov. 29, 1823, on the celebration of the second cente- 
nary of the birthday of Ray. He was also the first institutor and 
editor of the Zoological Journal, which continued until the Zoolo- 
gical Society commenced the publication of its Transactions and 
Proceedings, when the Zoological Journal ceased, and its supporters 
- transferred their contributions to the publications of that Society. 
Mr. Vigors appears to have been the first who applied to Orni- 
thology the principles of classification advocated by Mr. William 
S. M‘Leay, in his Hore Entomologice ; and his papers illustrative 
ef this new method of investigation are published in the Linnean 
Transactions and the Zoological Journal. His “Observations on 
the Natural Affinities that connect the Orders and Families of 
Birds,” were communicated by the Zoological Club of the Linnean 
Society, and read before that Society in December 1823*. 
* Linn. Trans., vol. xiv., p. 935. 
