During his time in India Sykes made collections of native animals. He published his catalogues of birds and mammals of the Deccan in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society in 1832. This included fifty-six birds new to science, including the Indian Pond Heron. Sykes also studied the fish of the area, and wrote papers on the quails and hemipodes of India.
Sykes's Crested Lark Galerida deva of central India is named after him. In addition, one race of Blue-headed Wagtail, Motacilla flava beema, was given the common name Sykes's Wagtail in British Birds in 1907.
Reference
Biographies for Birdwatchers by Barbara and Richard Mearns ISBN 0124874223
Colonel William Henry Sykes, FRS (January 25, 1790 – June 16, 1872) was an Indian Army officer, politician and ornithologist.
Sykes was born near Bradford in Yorkshire, and joined the Bombay Army, a part of the armed forces of the Honourable East India Company, in 1804, returning to Britain in 1837.
Sykes also studied the fish of the area, and wrote papers on the quails and hemipodes of India.
At the outbreak of the Civil War, Sykes was assigned as a major in the 14th U.S. Infantry.
Sykes continued as a division commander through the battles of Second Bull Run, Antietam (in reserve), Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville (in reserve).
Meade and general-in-chief Ulysses S. Grant agreed that Sykes was not a good choice for the upcoming Overland Campaign in May 1864, so when the Army of the Potomac was reorganized that spring, Sykes lost his corps and was sent to uneventful duty in the Department of Kansas.
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