Background
He was born in Leicester. He was the eldest son of Samuel Kirby, who was a banker.
He was born in Leicester. He was the eldest son of Samuel Kirby, who was a banker.
He was educated privately, and became interested in butterflies and moths at an early age.
The family moved to Brighton, where he became acquainted with Henry Cooke, Frederick Merrifield and J. North. Winter. He published the Manual of European Butterflies in 1862. In 1867 he became a curator in the Museum of the Royal Dublin Society, and produced a Synonymic Catalogue of Diurnal Lepidoptera (1871.
Supplement 1877).
In 1879 Kirby joined the staff of the British Museum (Natural History) as an assistant, after the death of Frederick Smith. He published a number of catalogues, as well as Rhopalocera Exotica (1887–1897) and an. He retired in 1909. Kirby had a wide range of interests, knew many languages and fully translated Finland"s national epic, the Kalevala, from Finnish into English.
Kirby"s translation, which carefully reproduces the Kalevala meter, was a major influence on the writings of J.R.R. Tolkien, who first read it in his teens.
Kirby provided many footnotes to Sir Richard Burton"s translation of the Arabian Nights. Kirby also did important work on orthopteroid insects including a three volume Catalogue of all known species (1904, 1906, 1910).
A short biography of Kirby, with particular reference to his work on phasmids was published by Bragg in 2007.
Manual of European Butterflies, 1862 Synonymic Catalogue of Diurnal Lepidoptera, 1871 Catalogue of the collection of diurnal Lepidoptera formed by the late William Chapman Hewitson of Oatlands, Walton on Thames. And bequeathed by him to the British Museum, John Van Voorst, London. 246 pp. with Henley Grose-Smith Rhopalocera exotica. Being illustrations of new, rare, and unfigured species of butterflies.London:Gurney & Jackson,1887-1902. complete text and plates A Hand-book to the Order Lepidoptera, 1896 Elementary Text-book of Entomology Hand-book to the order Lepidoptera, 1897 Marvels of Ant, Circa 1890s Familiar butterflies and moths, 1901 The Butterflies and moths of Europe, Cassell & Company Limited., London, 1903: 432 pp. A Synonymic Catalogue of Orthoptera, (3 volumes) British Museum (Natural History), London: 1904, 1906, 1910 He is also acknowledged in other scientific works: trations of diurnal Lepidoptera, by William Chapman Hewitson, 1863 Natural history, by Richard Lydekker, 1897 Contributions to the Bibliography of the Thousand and One Nights and Their Imitations (An appendix to Volume 10 to Richard F. Burton"s translation of The Nights, 1886 The Hero of Esthonia, and Other Studies in the Romantic Literature of That Country, 1895 Kalevala: The Land of Heroes, 1907.
