February, 1906. 
The Irish Naturalist. 
EDWARD WII^LIAMS. 
BORN 8TH MAY, 1 848. DIED 15TH DKCKMBKR, I905. 
Edward Williams— what lover of birds is not intimate 
with this simple name, and what Irish ornithologist is there un- 
familiar with the quiet earnest features of this exceptionally 
gifted naturalist, whose handicraft has unquestionably raised 
the standard of the taxidermist's art ? 
Eike his well-known brother Alexander Williams, R.H.A., 
Edward was a true artist, and this faculty, combined with an 
exceptionally accurate knowledge of birds in their native 
haunts, resulted in those beautiful and instructively mounted 
specimens which not only delight the public in our National 
Museum, and the private collector in his stud}^, but are of 
real service to science. 
Handcock of Newcastle-on-Tyne, an accurate and well- 
known ornithologist and taxidermist, became famous in 
England half a century ago for his wonderfully life-like speci- 
mens ; and this at a time when our national collections were 
little more than an assemblage of odd and unnatural-looking 
stuffed birds. Possibly Handcock had more imagination than 
Williams, and it would be difficult to surpass the mounting of 
his favourite Greenland Falcons, but in the mounting of 
Gulls, Waders, and Hawks, and the young and tender nest- 
lings of all birds, Williams had no superior, and in the resus- 
citation, so to speak, of a rare and much-damaged specimen, 
or in the skilful imitation of the natural coloration of fish, he 
had no equal. 
William Williams, Edward's father, was a hat maker in 
Drogheda, and for generations his ancestors had been felt 
makers in Monaghan. He was no ordinary man. Ex- 
ceedingly fond of natural history, he also gained prizes for 
proficiency in geology. In 1850 he became acquainted with 
Mr. R. J. Montgomery, afterwards assistant secretary to the 
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