edward] 
BRITISH ORNITHOLOGY 
193 
Edward (Thomas), 1814-86 
A shoemaker of Banff by trade and a poor man all his 
life, this indefatigable naturalist, though lacking the means 
to advance himself by learning, achieved by sheer persever- 
ance a greater success than often comes to those with better 
opportunities. Although an ardent field ornithologist, he 
published little directly beyond a few papers, and his prin- 
cipal claim to a place in this work rests on his celebrated 
biography by Smiles. His collecting expeditions were nearly 
all undertaken on the shores of the Moray Firth and among 
the Banffshire hills, but his collections were of enormous 
extent and value, as may be judged by the fact that of 
one hundred and twenty-seven species of Crustacea collected, 
no fewer than twenty were new to science. Bate and West- 
wood, in their History of British Sessile-eyed Crustacea , and 
Couch in his British Fishes , acknowledged their indebtedness 
to him, while it is also said of him that he collected “ nearly 
every plant in Aberdeenshire and Banffshire.” A fuller 
record of his work and records of birds, etc., will be found in 
Smiles’ biography, a work which not only led to public 
recognition of him, but brought him a Civil List pension of 
£50 per annum and other monetary benefits, as well as the 
honour of an Associateship of the Linnean Society in 1866. 
He died at Banff on April 27, 1886, at the advanced age 
of seventy -two. According to Britten and Boulger ( Biog . 
Index Brit. Botanists ), he was not a native of Banff, having 
been born at Gosport, Hants, on December 25, 1814. 
1850. Birds and Birds’ Nests in Aberdeenshire. ( Zoologist , viii. pp. 
2642-8.) 
1851. Zoological Notes ; remarks on rarities occurring near Banff. 
{Naturalist [Morris’s], i. pp. 145-8.) 
1853. A Day’s Ramble by the Seashore, beginning of March 1853. (Op. 
cit. iii. pp. 174-9.) 
1854. The Birds of Strathbeg and its neighbourhood, 2 pts. (Op. cit. iv. 
pp. 239-47, 263-71.) 
1856-60. A List of the Birds of Banffshire, accompanied with Anecdotes, 
8 pts. (Zoologist, xiv., 1856, pp. 5117-22, 5199-202, 5258-68 ; 
O 
