Edgar Leopold Layard
Edgar Leopold Layard | |
---|---|
Born | |
Died | 1 January 1900 | (aged 75)
Nationality | British |
Occupation | Diplomat |
Known for | |
Notable work | The Birds of South Africa |
Spouses |
|
Parent | Henry Peter John Layard |
Relatives | Sir Austen Henry Layard (brother) |
Edgar Leopold Layard
Early life and education
Born in the Berti Palace,
Layard attributed his early interest in natural history to the lack of siblings close to his age. Lacking playmates, he spent time making collections of shells and butterflies. His interests were not approved of by his father who approved only of literary tastes. When he was ten years old the family returned from Italy to England in Surrey. Layard's father died soon after and his mother moved with the children to her parental home in Ramsgate. Here Layard met a taxidermist and naturalist Mr.Thompson (Layard describes his as "of the "Elnis"" and mentions that he was sometime Mayor of Ramsgate) and learnt to skin and mount birds.
After going to school at Richmond he moved to Wheaton Aston and then to Cambridge.
Career
He was to join the clergy but influenced by Leonard Jenyns and Col. Babbington, he felt attracted to zoology. He also met a woman with a taste for zoology who he would later marry. Layard chose to go to Canada but found it too cold and returned after 18 months. Now 21 he heard from a cousin of a vacancy in Ceylon for someone with mechanical skills to work on machinery in a coffee estate. He married Barbara Anne, daughter of Reverend John Calthrop on 18 October 1848 and travelled to Ceylon with his wife, now skilled in art, so as to assist him in his zoological studies.
Reaching Ceylon he fell ill and was attended to by Dr. Robert Templeton (1802–1892). Noticing the butterfly nets, the two became close friends who pursued the study of lepidoptera. Templeton also influenced Sir J.E. Tennent to find Layard an appointment. Layard was appointed a Custom House officer at Balliganbay. A correspondence with Edward Blyth changed his focus from botany to zoology and birds. Blyth sent him a list of all 182 of the known birds from Ceylon and sought specimens of poorly-known species. Layard valued his correspondence with Blyth greatly and was saddened by his death: This was the beginning of a correspondence continued monthly for years, & of the pleasure & profit it was to me, I can give no idea. I used carefully to bind up his letters as they came, & I often now, when I see them, think with a sad heart of the bright intelligence and vast ornithological knowledge that sank with him, in shadows, in the grave.[1]
Layard spent ten years in Ceylon (Sri Lanka), where he studied the local fauna with Robert Templeton. He was forced to leave Ceylon by his and his wife's poor health. Most of their children died in infancy. Before leaving Ceylon, Layard's collection resulted in the number of species going from 182 to 318 species. On one occasion, he was able to use his natural history skills while settling a land dispute in Ceylon between two neighbouring farmers. He settled the disputed position of a filled up drain by digging them up and noticing the remains of a species of mollusc, which was later named after him as Tortulosa layardi (Pfeiffer 1851), along the true drain path. His collections were sent off to England and amounted to 9 tons.[1]
In 1854, he went to the
Edgar Layard administered the government of
In 1867, Layard published The Birds of South Africa, where he described 702 species.[8] This work was later updated by Richard Bowdler Sharpe (1847–1909).
Layard wrote in his biographical notes:[1]
- I don't profess to be a scientific naturalist, I have Never been rich enough to purchase the books required for the study, and my life has been spent in countries where no museums existed, save those I myself established. In Ceylon I founded a museum in connection with the Ceylon Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society of Calcutta, what became of it I do not know, after my connection with the island was severed. At the Cape, the Museum also of my founding still flourishes. All I lay claim to is a certain knowledge of the life history of the Birds of the countries I have inhabited. I have followed them assiduously with their nature haunts, and watched them as closely as I could, and what I have seen I have recorded.
Personal life
Layard's first wife, Barbara Anne Calthrop (died 1886), whom he married in 1845,
Layard died in Budleigh Salterton, Devon, England on 1 January 1900.
Commemoration
Several species are named after Layard including
References
- ^ a b c d Layard, E.L. Unpublished autobiography. MS at Blacker-Wood library, McGill University, Canada.
- ^ a b c Mennell, Philip (1892). . The Dictionary of Australasian Biography. London: Hutchinson & Co – via Wikisource.
- required.)
- ^ a b Edgar Leopold Layard: Curator of the South African Museum 1855 -1872 Archived 24 December 2014 at the Wayback Machine, iziko: history of the south african museum, retrieved 18 December 2016
- ^ "Letter 1794 – Charles Darwin to Edgar Leopold Layard". Darwin Correspondence Project. 9 December 1855. Retrieved 18 December 2016.
- ^ "Letter 1894 – Charles Darwin to Edgar Leopold Layard". Darwin Correspondence Project. 8 June 1856. Retrieved 18 December 2016., see also reply from E. L. Layard, [September–October 1856].
- ^ Anon. (26 July 1862) Illustrated London News 41(1156):114
- ^ Layard, Edgar Leopold (1867). The birds of South Africa: a descriptive catalogue of all the known species occurring south of the 28th parallel of south latitude. Cape Town: Juta. Retrieved 16 August 2017.
- ^ Layard, Edgar Leopold (1854). "Notes on the ornithology of Ceylon, collected during an eight years' residence in the Island". The Annals and Magazine of Natural History. 14: 110.
- .
- ISBN 978-1-4214-0135-5. ("Layard", p. 153).
Sources
- Bo Beolens and Michael Watkins (2003). Whose Bird? Common Bird Names and the People They Commemorate. Yale University Press (New Haven and London).
- Maurice Boubier (1925) Evolution of ornithology. Bookshop Felix Alcan (Paris), New scientific collection: II + 308 p.
- Barbara Mearns & Richard Mearns (1998). The Bird Collectors. Academic Press (London): xvii + 472 p.