Nicholas Aylward Vigors (1785 – 26 October 1840) was anIrishzoologist andpolitician. He popularized the classification of birds on the basis of thequinarian system.
Vigors was born atOld Leighlin,County Carlow, in 1785. He was the first son of Capt. Nicholas Aylward Vigors, who served in the29th (Worcestershire) Regiment, and his first wife, Catherine Vigors, daughter of Solomon Richards of Solsborough. He matriculated atTrinity College, Oxford, in November 1803, and was admitted atLincoln's Inn in November 1806. Without completing his studies, he served in the army during thePeninsular War from 1809 to 1811 and was wounded in theBattle of Barossa on 5 March 1811.[1] Though he had not yet completed his studies, he still published "An inquiry into the nature and extent of poetick licence"[2] in London in 1810. He then returned to Oxford to continue his studies and achieved hisBachelor of Arts in 1817 andMaster of Arts in 1818. He practiced as a barrister and became aDoctor of Civil Law in 1832.[3]
Vigors was a co-founder of theZoological Society of London in 1826, and its first secretary until 1833. In that year, he founded what became theRoyal Entomological Society of London. He was a fellow of theLinnean Society and theRoyal Society. He was the author of 40 papers, mostly onornithology. He described 110 species of birds, enough to rank him among the top 30 bird authors historically. He provided the text forJohn Gould'sA Century of Birds from the Himalaya Mountains (1830–32).
One bird that he described was "Sabine's snipe". This was treated as a common snipe by Barrett-Hamilton in 1895[5] and by Meinertzhagen in 1926 but was thought to be probably aWilson's snipe in 1945. Vigors lent a skin for later editions ofThomas Bewick'sHistory of British Birds.[6]
Vigors succeeded to his father's estate in 1828. He was MP for the borough ofCarlow from 1832 until 1835. He briefly representedCounty Carlow in 1835. Vigors had been elected in a by-election in June after the Conservative MPs originally returned at the1835 United Kingdom general election were unseated on petition and a new writ issued. On 19 August 1835, Vigors and his running mate, in the two-member county constituency, were unseated on petition. The same two Conservatives who had previously been unseated were awarded the seats. On the death of one of them, Vigors won the subsequent by-election in 1837 and retained the seat until his own death.
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
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| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forCarlow 1832–1835 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forCounty Carlow 1835 With:Alexander Raphael | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forCounty Carlow 1837–1840 With:Alexander Raphael | Succeeded by |
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| New institution | Secretary of theZoological Society of London 1829–1833 | Succeeded by |
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