Henry Philemon Attwater (28 April 1854, inBrighton – 25 September 1931, inHouston) was a British-Canadian-American naturalist and conservationist.[1]
Educated at St Nicholas Episcopal College inShoreham,West Sussex, Attwater emigrated in 1873 from England toOntario, Canada, where he engaged in farming and beekeeping. In 1883, a friend, John A. Morden, and he prepared and exhibited natural history specimens. In 1884, the two Canadians collected specimens inBexar County, Texas. During the latter part of 1884 and early 1885, Attwater and Gustave Toudouze, a naturalist and taxidermist fromLosoya, were hired by the state of Texas to prepare and exhibit the Texas Pavilion's natural history specimens at theNew Orleans World's Fair.
On New Year's Eve in 1885 inChatham, Ontario, Attwater married a widow with two children. In 1886 Attwater with his acquired family moved to London, Ontario, where he ran a small museum, which proved to be financially unsuccessful and closed in the summer of 1887. In 1889, the family emigrated from Canada to the US, where they lived inSherman, Texas, and then inSan Antonio. During the 1890s, Attwater collected and lectured throughout Texas and wrote on natural history and agricultural subjects. In 1900, he moved from San Antonio to Houston to become theSouthern Pacific Railroad's agricultural and industrial agent.[2] He continued in this position until his retirement in 1913. In the 1920s, he sold his natural history collection to theWitte Museum.
His three ornithological papers deal with the nesting habits of 50 species of birds in Bexar County, Texas, the occurrence of 242 species of birds in the vicinity of San Antonio,[3] and the deaths of thousands of warblers during ablue norther in March 1892.[4] Attwater also contributed specimens to theSmithsonian Institution, collected birds forGeorge B. Sennett, and provided notes forW. W. Cooke'sBird Migration in the Mississippi Valley (1888) and the mammal section ofVernon Bailey'sBiological Survey of Texas (1905).[1]
Attwater was the director of theNational Audubon Society from 1900 to 1910. He worked for the passage of the 1903 Model Game Law[5] and hunting license laws. He also promoted legislation to protect themourning doveZenaida macroura.
TherodentsPeromyscus attwateri (Texas mouse or Attwater's white-footed mouse) andGeomys attwateri (Attwater's pocket gopher) are named in his honor.[1]
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