The First Birdwatcher

Edmund Selous gave the world the words 'birdwatcher' and 'birdwatching' but has, until now, had no one to tell his extraordinary story.

The First Birdwatcher is the first full biography of Edmund Selous (1857-1934), the Victorian naturalist who transformed the study of birds by watching them rather than shooting them. At a time when ornithology meant collecting dead specimens and eggs, Selous lay for hours in the field – often in a motoring suit and wearing a face protector against the cold – making meticulous notes on the living birds before him. His dedication to patient, non-intrusive observation gave birdwatching its identity and, through his prolific writings, helped fuel its growing popularity in the early twentieth century.

Selous was the first fieldworker to propose the concepts now known as ritualisation and displacement activity, and the sole champion in his era of female choice in Darwin's theory of sexual selection. Working among ruffs on lek grounds in Texel, Holland, black grouse leks in Somerset and great crested grebes at Tring, his field diaries – meticulously preserved in Oxford – reveal an observer of exceptional persistence and originality. Yet his contributions were obscured in his lifetime, most damagingly by Julian Huxley, whose celebrated courtship studies drew extensively and without acknowledgement on Selous's prior fieldwork and hypotheses. This biography presents new archival evidence of that appropriation.

The First Birdwatcher also explores the personal world that shaped Selous: a wealthy, artistic Victorian family that counted Alfred Russel Wallace among its friends; the contrasting fame of his brother Fred Selous, celebrated big game hunter; his fierce opposition to egg collecting and the slaughter of birds for the millinery trade; and his prolific output as a writer, which included the popular children's series featuring Tommy Smith. Extracts from his vivid, distinctive prose are woven throughout, and a wide selection of his writings is included as an appendix.

The result of research spread over more than three decades, this authoritative biography draws on archives in Oxford, London and Texas, and on interviews with Selous's descendants. It will appeal to birdwatchers, natural historians and anyone interested in the history of ornithology, ethology and the Victorian and Edwardian natural world.