Howard Saunders

Howard Saunders
Born	(1835-09-16)16 September 1835 London
Died	20 October 1907(1907-10-20) (aged 72)
Nationality	English
Fields	Ornithology
Known for	Gulls Terns

Howard Saunders (16 September 1835 – 20 October 1907) was a British businessman, who later in life became a noted ornithologist, specialising in gulls and terns.

Life and work

Saunders was born in London on 16 September 1835. He received his early education at Leatherhead and Rottingdean. He entered business as a merchant banker, which allowed him to travel widely. From 1855 to 1862 he travelled in Brazil and Chile.

After 1862 Saunders devoted himself to the study of the birds of Spain. He published several articles on the subject in The Ibis, having visited the Pyrenees in 1883 and 1884. He also published articles on the birds of Switzerland in 1891, and an account of The Distribution of Birds in France in 1893. He was the co-editor with P. L. Sclater for The Ibis in 1883–1886 and 1895–1900.^[1]

Saunders was an expert on gulls and terns. Among other duties, he wrote about the gull specimens from the Challenger expedition of 1872–1876.^[2]

Saunders served as secretary of the British Ornithologists' Union from 1901 to 1907, and first secretary and treasurer of the British Ornithologists' Club. He was also an active member of the Zoological, Linnean and Royal Geographical Societies.

Legacy

Two species of birds have been named after him:

• Saunders's gull
• Saunders's tern

Bibliography

• Third and fourth (1885) editions of Yarrell's A History of British Birds
• Sternae (1889)
• Manual of British Birds (1889)

--- Third edition, Gurney & Jackson (1927) with revisions by William Eagle Clarke

• Catalogue of the Gaviae and Tubinares in the Collection of the British Museum (1896, with Osbert Salvin).

References

Sources

• "Howard Saunders". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. 2004–2012. Retrieved 4 May 2013. 
• Mullens and Swann - A Bibliography of British Ornithology
• Ibis Jubilee Supplement
• Chapman, Abel (July 1908). "Howard Saunders" (PDF). British Birds. 1 (7): 197–202. 
• Obituary