Eugene W. Oates

Eugene William Oates
Oates in 1908
Born(1845-12-31)31 December 1845
Sicily, Italy
Died16 November 1911(1911-11-16) (aged 65)
Edgbaston, England
EducationSydney College, Bath
OccupationOrnithologist

Eugene William Oates (31 December 1845 – 16 November 1911) was an English naturalist and a civil engineer who worked on road projects in Burma.

Oates was born in Sicily and educated in Bath, England. For a time he attended Sydney College, Bath and later under private tutors.[1] He was a civil servant in the Public Works Department in India and Burma from 1867 to 1899. He retired to England, where he compiled a catalogue of the birds' eggs in the Natural History Museum, and served as secretary of the British Ornithologists' Union from 1898 to 1901.[2][3]

He died in Edgbaston.[4]

A species of Indian snake, Typhlops oatesii,[5] a Burmese frog, Humerana oatesii, and seven species of birds are named in his honor.[6]

  1. ^ Anonymous (1912). "Obituary: Eugene William Oates". Ibis. 54 (2): 342. doi:10.1111/j.1474-919X.1912.tb05299.x.
  2. ^ Anonymous (1908). "Mr. E. W. Oates". Ibis. 9th series. 2 (Jubilee Supplement): 221–222.
  3. ^ Sharpe, R. Bowdler (1890). "Notes on Oates's birds of India". Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society. 5: 167–305.
  4. ^ Lockyer, Sir Norman (1912). Nature. Macmillan Journals Limited. p. 118.
  5. ^ Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. ISBN 978-1-4214-0135-5. ("Oates, E.W.", p. 193).
  6. ^ Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael & Grayson, Michael (2013). The Eponym Dictionary of Amphibians. Pelagic Publishing. p. 157. ISBN 978-1-907807-42-8.