Career
De Vis gained a Bachelor from Magdelene College, Cambridge in 1849, became a deacon in 1852, and was rector of Breane, Somerset from 1855-1859. He gave up his ecclesiastical functions to devote himself to science, initially in England then after 1870 in Australia. De Vis also wrote under the name of Thickthorn, the name of his home in Rockhampton.
His principal work concerned the fossil birds of Queensland (Darling Downs) and southern Australia (Cooper Creek), but he also described a number of extant bird species.
In fact, he was more successful at the latter, because due to insufficient knowledge of stratigraphy and evolution, he—like many ornithologists of his time—mistook subfossil remains of extant birds for the remains of extinct prehistoric species. Among species he described were the white-winged robin in 1890, and the frill-necked monarch in 1895.
De Vis also worked in the scientific field of herpetology, and he described many new species of reptiles.