Captain Robert Cecil Beavan (14 August 1841 – 3 February 1870), corresponding member of the

Zoological Society of London The Zoological Society of London (ZSL) is a charity and organization devoted to the worldwide animal conservation, conservation of animals and their habitat conservation, habitats. It was founded in 1826. Since 1828, it has maintained London Zo ...

, served in India with the Bengal Staff Corps for 10 years. During his short life he collected specimens of birds and eggs at various locations. He contributed notes to the Ibis journal as wells as the Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London. He also collaborated with

Allan Octavian Hume Allan Octavian Hume, Order of the Bath, CB Indian Civil Service, ICS (4 June 1829 – 31 July 1912) was a British political reformer, ornithologist, civil servant and botanist who worked in British Raj, British India and was the founding spirit ...

. His collection of eggs and birds went into the Natural History Museum through the Tweeddale and Godman-Salvin collections. In 1864 Beavan worked at

Barrackpore Barrackpore (), also known as Barrackpore,is a city and municipality in North 24 Parganas district in the India, Indian state of West Bengal. It is the headquarters of the Barrackpore subdivision. The city is a part of the area covered by Ko ...

and the winter of that year was spent in the Maunbhoom District, an area studied earlier by Samuel Tickell and

Edward Blyth Edward Blyth (23 December 1810 – 27 December 1873) was an English zoologist who worked for most of his life in India as a curator of zoology at the Asiatic Society, Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal in Calcutta. He set about updating the museum ...

. His notes on this period were published in ''The Ibis'' (1865) entitled "Notes on various Indian Birds". While still in service he collected in the

Andaman Islands The Andaman Islands () are an archipelago, made up of 200 islands, in the northeastern Indian Ocean about southwest off the coasts of Myanmar's Ayeyarwady Region. Together with the Nicobar Islands to their south, the Andamans serve as a mari ...

and with additional information from Colonel Robert Christopher Tytler, wrote "The Avifauna of the Andaman Islands" in the ''Ibis'' in 1867. Beavan was sent home once to Britain due to bad health, and on his second such trip, he died at sea. The species '' Pyrrhula erythaca'', first collected by him, is sometimes called Beavan's Bullfinch (Also called Gray-headed Bullfinch). His brother, Reginald, a lieutenant in the 22nd Punjab Native Infantry (Bengal Staff Corps where he was Lieutenant 1 Jan 1862, Captain 4 May 1872, Major 4 May 1880Ranks – Annual Army List 1885
/ref>), was a keen sports hunter and took an interest in fishes.

Publications

Beavan's chief publications are a series of notes in the

Ibis The ibis () (collective plural ibises; classical plurals ibides and ibes) are a group of long-legged wading birds in the family Threskiornithidae that inhabit wetlands, forests and plains. "Ibis" derives from the Latin and Ancient Greek word f ...

between 1865 and 1868. These included many notes of Colonel R C Tytler. * Ibis, 1865, pp. 400–423 * XVIII. The Avifauna of the Andaman Islands. Ibis 9(3):314–334 * XXVI. Notes on various Indian Birds. Ibis 9(4):430–455 (1867) * VIII. Notes on Various Indian Birds. Ibis 10(1):73–85 (1868) * XIII. Notes on Various Indian Birds. Ibis 10(2):165–181 * XXXI. Notes on Various Indian Birds. Ibis 10(4):370–406 (Address South Penge Park 18 July 1868) * XXXVII. Additional Notes on various Indian Birds. Ibis 11(4):403–426 * (Accipitres) P. Z. S. 1868, pp. 390–402. Reginald appears to have communicated some of Robert's papers to the Proceedings of the Zoological society after his death. The ''Handbook of the freshwater fishes of India'', was published posthumously in 1877 and is attributed to "Capt. R. Beavan, Bengal Staff Corps CMZS". * Descriptions of two imperfectly known Species of Cyprinoid Fishes from the Punjab, India. By Lieut. Reginald Beavan, F.R.G.S., Revenue Survey Department of India. PSZL, pages 150–153, 1872. It is unclear if this work is by Reginald Beavan or whether he merely communicated them * A communication was read from Capt. R. Beavan, Bengal Staff Corps, C.M.Z.S., containing a list of fishes met with in the river Nerbudda, Minar district of India. PZSL, p. 685, 1873In the index volume for the PZSL, this entry is listed under the full name of Reginald Beavan.

Footnotes

Citations

References

* Obituary. Ibis 1870:301–302 * Warr, F. E. 1996. Manuscripts and Drawings in the ornithology and Rothschild libraries of The Natural History Museum at Tring. BOC. * Mearns, B,& R. Mearns. 2002. The Bird Collectors. A & C Black. pp. 196–7

External links

Handbook of The Freshwater Fishes of India (scanned book) by Capt. R. Beavan (Bengal Staff Corps)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Beavan, Robert Cecil 1841 births 1870 deaths Bengal Staff Corps officers British naturalists British ornithologists People who died at sea