Shelley, George Ernest (1840 -1910)

George Ernest Shelley was the son of John Shelley, and Elizabeth, daughter of Charles Bowen, of Kilns-Court, co. Laois, Ireland. He was a geologist and ornithologist, and a nephew of the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. Shelley was educated at the Lycée de Versailles, and served a few years in the Grenadier Guards where he rose to the rank of captain. In 1869, he married Janet Andrewes, and had two sons and a daughter. His books included A Monograph of the Cinnyridae, or Family of Sun Birds (1878), A Handbook to the Birds of Egypt (1872) and The Birds of Africa (5 volumes, 1896 - 1912).