James Davidson (ornithologist)


James Davidson FZS was a Scottish naturalist in colonial India. He studied birds and many aspects of Indian natural history during his career in the Indian Civil Service, mostly posted in the Bombay Presidency and central India.
Davidson was born at Maryhill near Glasgow to William James Davidson and Harriet, daughter of Mark Sprot. His early education was at St Andrews in the private school of Mr Douglas before he went to study followed by studies at Glasgow and Edinburgh Universities. He qualified in the Indian Civil Services in 1872 and served in the Bombay Presidency until 1897. For his work during the famine years around 1876–78, he received a special award from the government. He retired to Edinburgh, Scotland.
During his service in India, he wrote extensively about the birds of the regions of present-day Uttara Kannada, Satara and Belgaum, corresponding with Allan Octavian Hume, to whom he gave his bird collection. His method included the use of local lads who located bird nests for him. He wrote numerous notes to Stray Feathers, the Journal started by Hume as well as to the journal of the Bombay Natural History Society. Just before his retirement, he made a trip to Kashmir with the lepidopterist and forest officer Thomas Reid Davys Bell. He was a member of the British Ornithologists' Union from 1883.

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