James Fisher

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For other persons with this name, see James Fisher (disambiguation).

James Maxwell McConnell Fisher (September 3, 1912 – September 25, 1970) was a British author, editor, broadcaster, naturalist and ornithologist. He was also a leading authority on Gilbert White and made over 1,000 radio and television broadcasts on natural history subjects.

Fisher was the son of Kenneth Fisher, (also a keen ornithologist and headmaster of Oundle School from 1922 to 1945); his maternal uncle was the Cheshire naturalist Arnold Boyd; educated at Eton; began studying medicine at Magdalen College, Oxford, but later switched to zoology. He took part in the Oxford Arctic expedition in 1933 as ornithologist. After university he joined London Zoo as an assistant curator, and during the war studied rooks for the Ministry of Agriculture. He later became a leading member of the RSPB and IUCN, a member of the National Parks Commission and vice-chairman of the Countryside Commission.

As well as writing his own books, he was an editor of Collins' New Naturalist series.

He was married to Margery Lilian Edith Turner, and died in a car crash in September, 1970.

[edit] Bibliography (incomplete)

• Watching Birds (Pelican, 1941, paperback) - sold over 3 million copies.
• The Fulmar (1952)
• A Thousand Geese (1953, with Peter Scott)
• Sea-birds (1954, with Ronald Lockley)
• Wild America (Collins, 1956, with Roger Tory Peterson).
• The Shell Bird Book (1966)

[edit] Reference

• Marren, Peter. The New Naturalists. ISBN 0-00-719715-2