Nicholas Aylward Vigors (1785 – 26 October 1840) was an Irish

zoologist Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and dis ...

and

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

. He popularized the classification of birds on the basis of the

quinarian system The quinarian system was a method of zoological classification which was popular in the mid 19th century, especially among British naturalists. It was largely developed by the entomologist William Sharp Macleay in 1819. The system was further pro ...

Early life

Vigors was born at

Old Leighlin Old Leighlin () is a small village in County Carlow, Ireland, 3.5 km west of Leighlinbridge. The site was at one time one of the foremost monastic houses in Leinster, with 1500 monks in residence. It was the location for a church synod i ...

County Carlow County Carlow ( ; ga, Contae Cheatharlach) is a county located in the South-East Region of Ireland, within the province of Leinster. Carlow is the second smallest and the third least populous of Ireland's 32 traditional counties. Carlow Co ...

on 1785 as first son from Capt. Nicholas Aylward Vigors which served in 29th (Worcestershire) Regiment and, his first wife, Catherine Vigors, daughter of Solomon Richards of Solsborough. He matriculated at

Trinity College, Oxford (That which you wish to be secret, tell to nobody) , named_for = The Holy Trinity , established = , sister_college = Churchill College, Cambridge , president = Dame Hilary Boulding , location = Broad Street, Oxford OX1 3BH , coordinates ...

on November 1803 before he was admitted at

Lincoln's Inn The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is one of the four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and where they are called to the Bar. (The other three are Middle Temple, Inner Temple and Gray's Inn.) Lincoln ...

on November 1806. Without completing his studies, he served in the army during the

Peninsular War The Peninsular War (1807–1814) was the military conflict fought in the Iberian Peninsula by Spain, Portugal, and the United Kingdom against the invading and occupying forces of the First French Empire during the Napoleonic Wars. In Spain, ...

from 1809 to 1811 and wounded in Battle of Barossa on 5 March 1811. Though, he haven't completed his studies yet, he still published "An inquiry into the nature and extent of poetick licence" in London at 1810. He then returned to Oxford to continued his studies and achieved his Bachelor of Arts on 1817 and

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...

on 1818. He practiced as a barrister and became a

Doctor of Civil Law Doctor of Civil Law (DCL; la, Legis Civilis Doctor or Juris Civilis Doctor) is a degree offered by some universities, such as the University of Oxford, instead of the more common Doctor of Laws (LLD) degrees. At Oxford, the degree is a higher ...

in 1832.

Zoology

Sabine's Snipe woodcut Bewick's British Birds 1847

Vigors was a co-founder of the

Zoological Society of London The Zoological Society of London (ZSL) is a charity devoted to the worldwide conservation of animals and their habitats. It was founded in 1826. Since 1828, it has maintained the London Zoo, and since 1931 Whipsnade Park. History On 29 ...

in 1826, and its first secretary until 1833. In that year, he founded what became the

Royal Entomological Society of London The Royal Entomological Society is devoted to the study of insects. Its aims are to disseminate information about insects and improving communication between entomologists. The society was founded in 1833 as the Entomological Society of London ...

. He was a fellow of the

Linnean Society The Linnean Society of London is a learned society dedicated to the study and dissemination of information concerning natural history, evolution, and taxonomy. It possesses several important biological specimen, manuscript and literature coll ...

and the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

. He was the author of 40 papers, mostly on

ornithology Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the "methodological study and consequent knowledge of birds with all that relates to them." Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and th ...

. He described 110 species of birds, enough to rank him among the top 30 bird authors historically. He provided the text for

John Gould John Gould (; 14 September 1804 – 3 February 1881) was an English ornithologist. He published a number of monographs on birds, illustrated by plates produced by his wife, Elizabeth Gould, and several other artists, including Edward Lear, ...

's ''A Century of Birds from the Himalaya Mountains'' (1830–32). One bird that he described was "Sabine's snipe". This was treated as a common snipe by Barrett-Hamilton in 1895 and by Meinertzhagen in 1926, but was thought to be probably a

Wilson's snipe Wilson's snipe (''Gallinago delicata'') is a small, stocky shorebird. The genus name ''gallinago'' is New Latin for a woodcock or snipe from Latin ''gallina'', "hen" and the suffix ''-ago'', "resembling". The specific ''delicata'' is Latin for "d ...

in 1945. Vigors lent a skin for later editions of

Thomas Bewick Thomas Bewick (c. 11 August 17538 November 1828) was an English wood-engraver and natural history author. Early in his career he took on all kinds of work such as engraving cutlery, making the wood blocks for advertisements, and illustrating ch ...

's '' History of British Birds''.

Politics

Vigors succeeded to his father's estate in 1828. He was MP for the borough of

Carlow Carlow ( ; ) is the county town of County Carlow, in the south-east of Ireland, from Dublin. At the 2016 census, it had a combined urban and rural population of 24,272. The River Barrow flows through the town and forms the historic bounda ...

from 1832 until 1835. He briefly represented the constituency of

in 1835. Vigors had been elected in a by-election in June after the Conservative MPs originally returned at the 1835 United Kingdom general election were unseated on petition and a new writ issued. On 19 August 1835 Vigors and his running mate, in the two member county constituency, were unseated on petition. The same two Conservatives who had previously been unseated were awarded the seats. On the death of one of them, Vigors won the subsequent by-election in 1837 and retained the seat until his own death. Plaques_to_Tyndall_and_Vigors,_Leighlinbridge

Plaques_to_Tyndall_and_Vigors,_Leighlinbridge

References

Bibliography

* * *''Parliamentary Election Results in Ireland, 1801-1922'', edited by B.M. Walker (Royal Irish Academy 1978)

External links

*
Art UK: Toucan by Vigors
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vigors, Nicholas Aylward 1785 births 1840 deaths Alumni of Trinity College, Oxford British ornithologists Irish ornithologists British zoologists Irish zoologists Taxon authorities Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for County Carlow constituencies (1801–1922) Fellows of the Royal Society Fellows of the Linnean Society of London Secretaries of the Zoological Society of London UK MPs 1832–1835 UK MPs 1835–1837 UK MPs 1837–1841 Grenadier Guards officers British Army personnel of the Napoleonic Wars Politicians from County Carlow Irish Repeal Association MPs Committee members of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge