Warren Billingsley Hitchcock (18 December 1919 – 16 March 1984) was an Australian field biologist and

ornithologist Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the "methodological study and consequent knowledge of birds with all that relates to them." Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and th ...

. He was born at Ashfield, New South Wales and educated in

Adelaide, South Australia Adelaide ( ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater A ...

. During the Second World War he served in the CMF and AIF in the Northern Territory of Australia as well as in New Guinea and

New Britain New Britain ( tpi, Niu Briten) is the largest island in the Bismarck Archipelago, part of the Islands Region of Papua New Guinea. It is separated from New Guinea by a northwest corner of the Solomon Sea (or with an island hop of Umboi the Dam ...

. Subsequently, he worked for various Australian state museums and for the Northern Territory Administration when, in 1955, he was badly burned from the waist down in a vehicle accident that resulted in a permanent disability. Following two years of hospitalisation and convalescence he worked for the

CSIRO The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) is an Australian Government The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government, is the national government of Australia, a federal parliamentar ...

Wildlife Survey Section as secretary of the Australian Bird Banding Scheme and as curator of the CSIRO's ornithological collections before retiring in 1970 due to health reasons. In 1978, he went to New Zealand and enrolled in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Auckland though, because of ill-health, he was not able to graduate. He died in Auckland of congestive heart failure while he slept. He joined the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union in 1938 and served it as Secretary 1951–1952, President 1962–1963, and as Editor of the ''

Emu The emu () (''Dromaius novaehollandiae'') is the second-tallest living bird after its ratite relative the ostrich. It is endemic to Australia where it is the largest native bird and the only extant member of the genus ''Dromaius''. The emu' ...

'' 1962–1965. He was a founder of the

Canberra Ornithologists Group The Canberra Ornithologists Group (COG) was founded on 15 April 1970 when the ACT branch of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union (RAOU) became defunct following drastic reform within the RAOU in the late 1960s which abolished all its branc ...

in 1964.

References

* Marchant, S. (1985). Obituary. Warren Billingsley Hitchcock. ''Emu'' 85: 51–52. * Robin, Libby. (2001). ''The Flight of the Emu: a hundred years of Australian ornithology 1901-2001''. Carlton, Vic. Melbourne University Press. 1919 births 1984 deaths Australian ornithologists 20th-century Australian zoologists {{Australia-ornithologist-stub