Michael John Nicoll

Michael John Nicoll (29 September 1880, in Bepton – 31 October 1925, in Leeds) was an English ornithologist and zoo director at Giza who worked on the birds of Egypt.

He accompanied Lord Crawford on several voyages to explore bird life and wrote a book on his experiences.

He grew up at St Leonard's-on-Sea studying at the local school and moved to a farm in Brightling where he took an interest in the natural world.

In 1923, Nicoll replaced Major Flower as director of the Giza zoo but an illness forced him to retire in the next year.

[2] Although Nicoll was noted as a careful observer it has been found that 31 of the specimens in the Hastings Rarities case came from him.