Person PX8305 Adams; Andrew Leith (1827-1882); Naturalist and palaeontologist Adams Andrew Leith 1827-1882 Naturalist and palaeontologist Male Born Banchory-Ternan, Aberdeenshire, 21 March 1827. Died Queenstown, Ireland, 29 July 1882.

Adams was the son of Dr Francis Adams, a classical scholar and translator. He studied medicine and joined as an army physician in 1848, serving in the 22nd Infantry Regiment in India. Between 1849 and 1854 he was posted in Dagshai, Rawalpindi and Peshawar. He also served in Kashmir, Egypt, Malta (1861–1868), Gibraltar and Canada. He married Bertha Jane Grundy on 26 October 1859, who later became famous as a novelist. He spent his spare time studying the natural history of these countries. He was among the first to study the interior of Ladakh and wrote about it in "The birds of Cashmere and Ladakh". The Orange Bullfinch Pyrrhula aurantiaca was discovered by him as also the first breeding site of Brown-headed Gulls Larus brunnicephalus in the lakes of the Tibetan plateau. After his retirement from the army in 1873, Adams was professor of natural history at Trinity College, Dublin and Queen's College, Cork. He was elected a fellow of the Geographical Society in 1870, a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1872, and Fellow of the Royal Society in 1873. He died of a pulmonary haemorrhage on 29 July 1882 at Rushbrook Villa (Cork). He published Wanderings of a Naturalist in India, the Western Himalayas and Cashmere (1867) and Notes of a Naturalist in the Nile Valley and Malta (1871). He is commemorated in the Black-winged Snowfinch Montifringilla adamsi and in the genus of the Pleistocene giant dormouse of Malta and Sicily Leithia melitensis and Leithia cartei. In 1868 Leith Adams described the very large form of giant dormouse from the Maqhlaq cave as Myoxus melitensis and the smaller form as Myoxus cartei. Later, Richard Lydekker assigned the two species to a new genus, named Leithia in honour of Leith Adams in 1895. Adams, A.L. (1859). "Notes on the habits, haunts, etc. of some of the birds of India". Proc. Zool. Soc. London 26: 466–512. Adams, A.L. (1859). "The birds of Cashmere and Ladakh". Proc. Zool. Soc. London 27: 169–190. Adams, A.L. (1863). "Observations on the Fossiliferous caves of Malta". Journal of the Royal Society 4 (2): 11–19. 2 plates, July 1862-Jan. 1863. Adams, A.L. (1868). "On a species of dormouse (Myoxus) occurring in the fossil state in Malta". Transactions of the Zoological Society of London 6 (5): 307–308. Adams, A.L. (1870). Notes of a naturalist in the Nile Valley and Malta. 195pp. Edinburgh (Edmonton and Douglas). Adams, A.L. (1874). "On the dentition and osteology of the Maltese fossil elephant, being a description of the remains discovered by the author in Malta between the years 1860 and 1866". Transactions of the Zoological Society of London 9 (1): 1–124. plates I-XXII. Adams, A.L. (1874). Concluding Report on the Maltese Fossil Elephants. Report of the British Association for 1873, 185-187. Adams, A. L. (1875). "On a fossil saurian vertebra, Arctosaurus osborni from the Arctic region". Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 2: 177–179. Wikipedia (please note information needs checking as conflicts with others eg BMJ obiturary 1882) International Standard Archival Authority Record for Corporate Bodies, Persons and Families - ISAAR(CPF) 2nd edition - ICA 2004 ISBN 2-9521932-2-3 National Council on Archives, Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997 Yes Cja833 30/04/2012 NHM\laurb5 04/04/2019 bb902ed3-0622-490e-89e1-df9d7bd1162d