Colin James Oliver Harrison (18 August 1926 – 17 November 2003) was an English

ornithologist Ornithology, from Ancient Greek ὄρνις (''órnis''), meaning "bird", and -logy from λόγος (''lógos''), meaning "study", is a branch of zoology dedicated to the study of birds. Several aspects of ornithology differ from related discip ...

. Harrison was born in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. He got a scholarship to grammar school, and then worked as a librarian and a teacher. He had been interested in birds since childhood, and joined an expedition to study autumn

migration Migration, migratory, or migrate may refer to: Human migration * Human migration, physical movement by humans from one region to another ** International migration, when peoples cross state boundaries and stay in the host state for some minimum le ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

. He became a professional ornithologist at the age of 34 and became responsible for the care of the national collection of birds' nests and eggs in the Bird Room at the

Natural History Museum A natural history museum or museum of natural history is a scientific institution with natural history scientific collection, collections that include current and historical records of animals, plants, Fungus, fungi, ecosystems, geology, paleo ...

at Tring, Hertfordshire. In 1966 he led the fourth of the series of Harold Hall Australian ornithological collecting expeditions. Harrison later became interested in

biogeography Biogeography is the study of the species distribution, distribution of species and ecosystems in geography, geographic space and through evolutionary history of life, geological time. Organisms and biological community (ecology), communities o ...

and the museum's avian

paleontological Paleontology, also spelled as palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of the life of the past, mainly but not exclusively through the study of fossils. Paleontologists use fossils as a means to classify organisms, measure geolo ...

collection, on which he published a number of articles with Cyril Walker. He studied and published on different aspects of bird behaviour, on plumage patterns, and on the bone structure of modern and fossil birds. He identified ''

Eostrix ''Eostrix'' is a genus of extinct primitive owls in the family Protostrigidae, along with ''Oligostrix'' and ''Minerva''. These owls date from the early Eocene of the United States, Europe, and Mongolia. They have been described based on fossil ...

vincenti'' in 1980.

Bibliography (incomplete)

* ''Atlas of the Birds of the Western Palearctic'' (Collins, 1982) * ''History of the Birds of Britain'' (Collins, 1988) * ''A Field Guide to the Nests, Eggs and Nestlings of British and European Birds'' (Quadrangle, 1975)

References

* * Publisher's biography in ''A Field Guide to Nests, Eggs and Nestlings of British and European Birds'' 1926 births 2003 deaths English ornithologists Scientists from London 20th-century English zoologists {{UK-ornithologist-stub