George Robert Gray - Definition and Overview

George Robert Gray (July 8, 1808 - May 6, 1872) was an English zoologist and author and head of the ornithological section of the British Museum in London for forty-one years. He was the younger brother of John Edward Gray.

George Gray's most important publication was his Genera of Birds (1844-49), illustrated by David William Mitchell and Joseph Wolf, which included 46,000 references.

He started at the British Museum as Assistant Keeper of the Zoology Branch in 1831. He began by cataloguing insects, and published an Entomology of Australia (1833) and contributed the entomogical section to an English edition of Cuvier's Animal Kingdom.

Gray's original description of the Gray's Grasshopper Warbler which was named for him appeared in 1860. The specimen had been collected by Alfred Russel Wallace in the Moluccas.

Reference

• Biographies for Birdwatchers, Mearns and Mearns, ISBN 0124874223