George Latimer Bates (March 21, 1863,

Abingdon, Illinois Abingdon is a city in Knox County, Illinois, United States, west of Peoria. It is part of the Galesburg Micropolitan Statistical Area. The city was first settled in 1828 and was incorporated in 1857. In june of 1907, the patent for the commo ...

US – January 31, 1940

Chelmsford Chelmsford () is a city in the City of Chelmsford district in the county of Essex, England. It is the county town of Essex and one of three cities in the county, along with Southend-on-Sea and Colchester. It is located north-east of London a ...

UK), LL.D., M.B.O.U. was an American naturalist. Bates studied at Knox College, Galesburg and at the Chicago Theological Seminary and in 1895 visited

West Africa West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Maurit ...

and lived in the south east

Cameroon Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (french: République du Cameroun, links=no), is a country in west-central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west and north; Chad to the northeast; the C ...

, making a living by farming. He collected natural history specimens in his travels and sent many of these to the

Natural History Museum A natural history museum or museum of natural history is a scientific institution with natural history collections that include current and historical records of animals, plants, fungi, ecosystems, geology, paleontology, climatology, and more. ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. In 1928 Bates moved to

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

and wrote a ''Handbook on the Birds of West Africa'' (1930). He learned

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...

and visited

Arabia The Arabian Peninsula, (; ar, شِبْهُ الْجَزِيرَةِ الْعَرَبِيَّة, , "Arabian Peninsula" or , , "Island of the Arabs") or Arabia, is a peninsula of Western Asia, situated northeast of Africa on the Arabian Plate. ...

in 1934 and studied the ornithology of Arabia. He was unable to publish the work but wrote several papers on Arabian birds for the ''

Ibis The ibises () (collective plural ibis; classical plurals ibides and ibes) are a group of long-legged wading birds in the family Threskiornithidae, that inhabit wetlands, forests and plains. "Ibis" derives from the Latin and Ancient Greek word ...

''. His unpublished manuscript on the ''Birds of Arabia'' was later used by

Richard Meinertzhagen Colonel Richard Meinertzhagen, CBE, DSO (3 March 1878 – 17 June 1967) was a British soldier, intelligence officer, and ornithologist. He had a decorated military career spanning Africa and the Middle East. He was credited with creating and ...

Legacy

A species of African snake, ''

Rhamnophis batesii The spotted dagger-tooth tree snake (''Rhamnophis batesii'') is a species of venomous snake in the family Colubridae. The species is indigenous to Middle Africa. Etymology The specific name, ''batesii'', is in honor of American ornithologist Ge ...

'', is named in his honor,Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . ("Bates, G. L.", p. 19). as are three species of African amphibians (''

Astylosternus batesi ''Astylosternus batesi'' is a species of frog in the family Arthroleptidae. It is found in Cameroon south of Sanaga River, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, southwestern Central African Republic, the Republic of the Congo, and the extreme western Democ ...

'', ''

Phrynobatrachus batesii ''Phrynobatrachus batesii'' is a species of frog in the family Phrynobatrachidae. It is found in Cameroon, Gabon, Ghana, Nigeria, possibly Equatorial Guinea, and possibly Togo. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland fore ...

'', and ''

Nectophryne batesii ''Nectophryne'', or African tree toads, is a small genus of true toads A true toad is any member of the family Bufonidae, in the order Anura (frogs and toads). This is the only family of anurans in which all members are known as toads, altho ...

''), twenty birds, and four mammals.

References

Sources

*Obituary. ''Ibis'' 1940: 343–348. *Warr FE (1996). ''Manuscripts and Drawings in the ornithology and Rotschild libraries of The Natural History Museum at Tring''. BOC. American ornithologists 1863 births 1940 deaths People from Abingdon, Illinois {{US-ornithologist-stub