Adolf Böcking

Adolf Theodor Erich Böcking (14 June 1831 – 18 April 1898) was a German-born naturalist who settled in the United States.

He studied natural science at University Bonn and received his PhD in Zoology in 1863 for his thesis on the Rhea americana or Nandu flightless bird.

He then traveled to London to marry in 1870 and returned to Kansas to buy a farm but after several crop failures related to draught and the locust plague of 1874, he decided to give it up in order to protect his family from further hardship.

He then lived in London with his family but due to poor conditions and health problems exacerbated by the weather decided to move to warmer climates in Texas where he arrived with his wife and sons in 1886.He was director of the Fredericksburg School but resigned early and moved to San Antonio, Tx where he wrote for various scientific journals and gave lectures that were well received.

The Nandu an Ornithological Sketch by Adolf Erich Boecking, Ph.D. published by the Scientific Society of San Antonio 1894 Bulletin Vol.