Eugene W. Oates

{{Short description|English naturalist and civil engineer}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

{{Infobox person

| image = File:EWOates1908.jpg

| name = Eugene William Oates

| image_caption = Oates in 1908

| birth_date = {{birth date|1845|12|31|df=y}}

| birth_place = Sicily, Italy

| death_date = {{death date and age|1911|11|16|1845|12|31|df=y}}

| death_place = Edgbaston, England

| education = Sydney College, Bath

| occupation = Ornithologist

}}

Eugene William Oates (31 December 1845{{spaced ndash}}16 November 1911) was an English naturalist and a civil engineer who worked on road projects in Burma.

Oates was born in Sicily and educated in Bath, England. For a time he attended Sydney College, Bath and later under private tutors.{{cite journal|journal=Ibis|title=Obituary: Eugene William Oates|year=1912|author=Anonymous|volume=54|issue=2|page=342|doi=10.1111/j.1474-919X.1912.tb05299.x|doi-access=}} He was a civil servant in the Public Works Department in India and Burma from 1867 to 1899. He retired to England, where he compiled a catalogue of the birds' eggs in the Natural History Museum, and served as secretary of the British Ornithologists' Union from 1898 to 1901.{{cite journal |journal=Ibis |series=9th series |title=Mr. E. W. Oates |year=1908 |author=Anonymous |volume=2 |issue=Jubilee Supplement |pages=221–222 |url=https://archive.org/stream/ibis29brit#page/n311/mode/2up }}{{cite journal|url=https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/2081546|title=Notes on Oates's birds of India|journal=Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society|volume=5|year=1890|pages=167–305|author=Sharpe, R. Bowdler|author-link=Richard Bowdler Sharpe}}

He died in Edgbaston.{{cite book|author=Lockyer, Sir Norman|author-link=Norman Lockyer|title=Nature|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z1ZGAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA118|year=1912|publisher=Macmillan Journals Limited|pages=118}}

A species of Indian snake, Typhlops oatesii,Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. {{ISBN|978-1-4214-0135-5}}. ("Oates, E.W.", p. 193). a Burmese frog, Humerana oatesii, and seven species of birds are named in his honor.{{cite book |last1 = Beolens | first1 = Bo | last2 = Watkins | first2 = Michael | last3 = Grayson | first3 = Michael |name-list-style=amp |title=The Eponym Dictionary of Amphibians |url=https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=QJY3BAAAQBAJ&pg=GBS.PA157 |date=2013 |publisher=Pelagic Publishing |isbn=978-1-907807-42-8 |page=157}}