30 
A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
[ATKINSON 
his father, the Rev. John Atkinson, was curate, and was 
educated at Kelvedon Grammar School and St. John’s 
College, Cambridge. He came of an ornithological family, 
both his father and his grandfather, the Rev. Christopher 
Atkinson, Fellow and Tutor of Trinity College, Cambridge, 
having been keen ornithologists. 
The subject of our notice spent his boyhood in the several 
parts of Essex where his father was curate, commencing 
with Goldhanger and afterwards moving to Great Wig- 
borough, Little Wigborough, Reldon, etc., and he has stated 
that in writing his Eggs and Nests he drew largely on his 
recollections of Kelvedon and his school life and exploits 
there. He later resided in other counties of England, was 
ordained in 1841, and in 1847 became Vicar of Danby, near 
Castleton, Yorkshire, in which county he resided until his 
death. In 1887 he received the honorary degree of D.C.L. 
from Durham University, and became Canon of York 
Cathedral in 1891. 
In additionHo the books undermentioned, he wrote many 
short notes on ornithology to the Zoologist , the first (i. p. 355, 
1843) on dates of migration at Kelvedon, Essex, being signed 
“ J. Atkinson.” He was also author of the Cleveland Dialect ; 
History of Cleveland ; and Walks, Talks, Travels and Exploits 
of Two Schoolboys (1859), etc . 1 
1861. Sketches in Natural History, with an Essay on Reason and Instinct. 
With eighty-two illustrations by W. S. Coleman, etc., engraved 
by the brothers Dalziel. London (Routledge) : 1861. 
Collation — 1 vol. post 8vo, pp. xii + pp. 338 + 1 p. index with 
front, and figs. 
The sketches comprise chapters on the Nuthatch, Redshank, 
Dabchick, Water-hen, Submergence of Water-birds, Ringdove, 
Water-rail, Partridge, Red Grouse, Jack Snipe, and apparent 
Ventriloquism in Birds. 
1861. British Birds’ Eggs and Nests, popularly described. With coloured 
illustrations by W. S. Coleman. London : 1861. 
Collation — 1 vol. 12mo, pp. viii + pp. 182, with 12 col. pi. and 
folding table of British breeding birds. 
1 For the substance of the above notice we are chiefly indebted to Mr. Miller 
Christy ( Birds of Essex , p. 9), and memoir by Mr. George Macmillan in Forty Years 
in a Moorland Parish. 
