Arthur Lennox Butler (22 February 1873 – 29 December 1939) was a British naturalist. Born in

Karachi Karachi (; ur, ; ; ) is the most populous city in Pakistan and 12th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 20 million. It is situated at the southern tip of the country along the Arabian Sea coast. It is the former cap ...

, he became a curator of a natural history museum in

Kuala Lumpur , anthem = '' Maju dan Sejahtera'' , image_map = , map_caption = , pushpin_map = Malaysia#Southeast Asia#Asia , pushpin_map_caption = , coordinates = , su ...

, Malaysia. He later became the superintendent of a game preserve in Sudan before returning to England. He is commemorated in the scientific names of four species of reptile, a bird, and an amphibian.

Early life and education

Butler was born on 22 February 1873 in

, Pakistan, which at the time was part of British India. His father was the British ornithologist

Edward Arthur Butler Lieutenant-Colonel Edward Arthur Butler (4 July 1843 – 16 April 1916) was an English ornithologist and British Army officer. He is commemorated in the scientific specific name for the Omani owl, ''Strix butleri''. Butler was born at Coto ...

and his mother was Clara Francis Butler. Butler attended Fauconberg School in

Beccles Beccles ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the English county of Suffolk.OS Explorer Map OL40: The Broads: (1:25 000) : . The town is shown on the milestone as from London via the A145 and A12 roads, north-east of London as the crow fli ...

. In 1891 at the age of eighteen, Butler traveled to

Ceylon Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

(now Sri Lanka) to become a tea-planter, which he abandoned to become a scientific collector.

Career

Butler became a scientific collector after moving to Ceylon, collecting specimens for the Marsden and Tring museums. In 1898, Butler was appointed curator at the State Museum at Kuala Lumpur in

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

. In 1899, he was elected as a member of the

British Ornithologists' Union The British Ornithologists' Union (BOU) aims to encourage the study of birds ("ornithology") and around the world, in order to understand their biology and to aid their conservation. The BOU was founded in 1858 by Professor Alfred Newton, Henry ...

. Beginning in 1901, he was the superintendent of

game A game is a structured form of play (activity), play, usually undertaken for enjoyment, entertainment or fun, and sometimes used as an educational tool. Many games are also considered to be work (such as professional players of spectator s ...

preservation in Anglo-Egyptian

Sudan Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic t ...

, a position he held until 1915. In 1921, he became a member of the

British Ornithologists' Club The British Ornithologists' Club (BOC) aims to promote discussion between members and others interested in ornithology, and to facilitate the dissemination of scientific information concerned with ornithology. The BOC has a special interest in avi ...

Personal life

In 1908, Butler married his cousin, Rose Boughton-Leigh. The couple had no children.

Later life and death

In 1915 Butler returned to England, living in St. Leonard's Park near

Horsham Horsham is a market town on the upper reaches of the River Arun on the fringe of the Weald in West Sussex, England. The town is south south-west of London, north-west of Brighton and north-east of the county town of Chichester. Nearby to ...

for the rest of his life. The last several years of his life were spent in poor health, and he was unable to attend any meetings of the British Ornithologists' Club from 1932 onward. Butler died on 29 December 1939 at age 66.

Legacy and honors

The scientific name of the

Nicobar sparrowhawk The Nicobar sparrowhawk (''Accipiter butleri'') is a species of bird of prey in the family Accipitridae. It is endemic to the Nicobar Islands of India. There are two subspecies, the nominate race which is found on Car Nicobar in the north of the ...

(''Accipiter butleri)'' commemorates Butler, as do the scientific names of four species of

reptile Reptiles, as most commonly defined are the animals in the class Reptilia ( ), a paraphyletic grouping comprising all sauropsids except birds. Living reptiles comprise turtles, crocodilians, squamates (lizards and snakes) and rhynchocephalians ( ...

s (''Gehyra butleri'', '' Lycodon butleri'', '' Chilorhinophis butleri'', and '' Tytthoscincus butleri)'' and an

amphibian Amphibians are tetrapod, four-limbed and ectothermic vertebrates of the Class (biology), class Amphibia. All living amphibians belong to the group Lissamphibia. They inhabit a wide variety of habitats, with most species living within terres ...

(''

Microhyla butleri The painted chorus frog (''Microhyla butleri''), also commonly known as Butler's narrow-mouthed toad, Butler's pigmy frog, Butler's rice frog, Butler's ricefrog, noisy frog or tubercled pygmy frog, is a species of frog in the family Microhylidae. ...

)''. ''Gehyra butleri'' is now included as a synonym of ''

Gehyra mutilata ''Gehyra mutilata'', also known commonly as the common four-clawed gecko, Pacific gecko, stump-toed gecko, sugar gecko in Indonesia, tender-skinned house gecko, and ''butiki'' in Filipino, is a species of lizard in the family Gekkonidae. The sp ...

'' by some. In 1915, he was awarded the

Order of the Nile The Order of the Nile (''Kiladat El Nil'') was established in 1915 and was one of the Kingdom of Egypt's principal orders until the monarchy was abolished in 1953. It was then reconstituted as the Republic of Egypt's highest state honor. Sultana ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Butler, Arthur Lennox 1873 births 1939 deaths British naturalists People from Karachi Members of British Ornithologists' Union Zoological collectors