Robert Fisher Tomes (4 August 1823 – 10 July 1904) was an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

farmer A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, raising living organisms for food or raw materials. The term usually applies to people who do some combination of raising field crops, orchards, vineyards, poultry, or other livestock. A farmer ...

and

zoologist Zoology ( , ) is the scientific study of animals. Its studies include the structure, embryology, classification, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinct, and how they interact with their ecosystems. Zoology is one ...

Biography

Tomes was born in

Weston-on-Avon Weston-on-Avon is a village in Warwickshire, England. The population of the civil parish taken at the 2011 census was 170. It is about south-west of the town of Stratford-upon-Avon. History Originally in Gloucestershire, Weston-on-Avon was ...

and farmed at Welford,

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( , ; abbreviated Glos.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Herefordshire to the north-west, Worcestershire to the north, Warwickshire to the north-east, Oxfordshire ...

. He was a specialist in

bat Bats are flying mammals of the order Chiroptera (). With their forelimbs adapted as wings, they are the only mammals capable of true and sustained flight. Bats are more agile in flight than most birds, flying with their very long spread-out ...

s, describing a number of new species. His writings included the sections on

insectivora The Order (biology), order Insectivora (from Latin ''insectum'' "insect" and ''vorare'' "to eat") is a now-abandoned biological grouping within the class of mammals. Some species have now been moved out, leaving the remaining ones in the order ...

and

Chiroptera Bats are flying mammals of the order Chiroptera (). With their forelimbs adapted as wings, they are the only mammals capable of true and sustained flight. Bats are more agile in flight than most birds, flying with their very long spread-out ...

in the second edition of Thomas Bell's ''History of Quadrupeds''. His interest in

ornithology 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 ...

waned, and he resigned from the

British Ornithologists Union The British Ornithologists' Union (BOU) aims to encourage the study of birds (ornithology) around the world in order to understand their biology and aid their conservation. The BOU was founded in 1858 by Professor Alfred Newton, Henry Baker Tr ...

in 1866. His contributions to the two

Victoria County Histories The Victoria History of the Counties of England, commonly known as the Victoria County History (VCH), is an English history project which began in 1899 with the aim of creating an encyclopaedic history of each of the historic counties of Englan ...

were his only significant ornithological works.The Historical Atlas of Breeding Birds in Britain and Ireland, 1875-1900, Simon Holloway,

T & A D Poyser T. & A. D. Poyser began as a British publisher, founded by Trevor and Anna Poyser in 1973, to specialise in ornithology books. It was located in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, and later in Calton, Staffordshire. T. & A. D. Poyser often worked in ...

, 1996 Tomes is buried at South Littleton,

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Shropshire, Staffordshire, and the West Midlands (county), West ...

. His collection of mammals was sold to 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 ...

, and his bird collection was bequeathed to the museum in

Worcester Worcester may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Worcester, England, a city and the county town of Worcestershire in England ** Worcester (UK Parliament constituency), an area represented by a Member of Parliament * Worcester Park, London, Engl ...

Selected bibliography

*''Occurrence of the Fork-tailed Petrel in Warwickshire'' Zoologist, 8:2706-2707 (1850) *''On two species of bats inhabiting New Zealand''. Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., pp. 134–42 (1857) *''A monograph of the genus Nyctophilus''. Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., pp. 25–37 (1858) *''Descriptions of six hitherto undescribed species of bats''. Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond. pp. 68–79 (1859) *''A monograph of the genus Epomophorus, with a description of a new species''. Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., pp. 42–58 (1860) *''Notes on a third collection of Mammalia, made by Mr. Fraser in the Republic of Ecuador''. Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond. pp. 28 (1860) *''Report of a collection of mammals made by Osbert Salvin, Esq., FZS, at Dueñas, Guatemala''. Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond. pp. 278 (1861) *''Notice of a new American form of marsupial''. Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., pp. 50–51 (1863) *''On a new genus and species of leaf-nosed bats in the museum at Fort Pitt''. Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., pp. 81–85 (1863) *''On some new or imperfectly known Madreporaria from the Inferior Oolite of Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire, and Dorsetshire''. Geol. Mag. 23, 385–98, 443–52. (1886) *''On Heterastraea, a new genus of Madreporaria from the Lower Lias''. Geol. Mag. 25, 207–18. (1888) *Birds. In the ''Victoria County History of Worcestershire'' (1901) *Aves. In the ''Victoria County History of Warwickshire'' (1904)

References

External links

Some Memorial Inscriptions – South Littleton, Worcestershire
1823 births 1904 deaths English zoologists Contributors to the Victoria County History {{UK-zoologist-stub

Biography

Selected bibliography

See also

References

External links