BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES
OF THE
PRINCIPAL ESSEX ORNITHOLOGISTS.
ABDY, Sir Robert, third baronet, of Albins, in Stapleford
Abbots, Essex, seems to have been interested in birds, and
to have been a patron of Eleazar Albin, to whom he sent a
number of specimens from time to time. Albin accordingly dedi-
cated to him the first and second volumes of his Natural History
of Birds (3.—1731-38). According to Morant, he was "a man of
deep knowledge in antiquity and natural history, a great connois-
seur in medals, of which he had a fine collection, and, what is more
valuable, a true patriot and a person of unshaken integrity and
remarkable humanity."
ATKINSON, Rev. J. C, was born in 1814 at Goldhanger, of
which place his father, the Rev. John Atkinson (q.v.), was curate.
He is an excellent ornithologist, as might have been expected
from the fact that both his father and grandfather were fond of
the study. The days of his boyhood were spent in the district
around Goldhanger, Great Wigborough, Little Wigborough, Peldon,
Tollesbury, Mersea, &c, and he thus had unrivalled facilities for
becoming intimately acquainted with the birds frequenting that
part of the Essex coast, opportunities of which he made excellent
use. He also resided in, or by means of visits became familiar with,
Bardfield, Finchingfield, Gosfield, Colchester, Maldon, and other
parts of Essex. Many notes of his on the ornithology of our coast
may be found in the early volumes of the Zoologist. In short, the
first twenty-four years of Mr. Atkinson's life, allowing for university
residence, were spent in Essex. He afterwards resided in Suffolk,
Herefordshire, and Berkshire. In or about 1846, he became Vicar
of Danby, near Grosmont, Yorkshire, where he still resides. He has