Moffat, Charles Bethune (‘C. B. M.’) (1859–1945), ornithologist, naturalist, and conservationist, was born 16 January 1859 on the Isle of Man, eldest among four sons and three daughters of James and Elizabeth Moffat. A year and a half after his birth his parents moved to Ireland, first to Rochestown, Cahir, Co. Tipperary, before buying an extensive property at Ballyhyland, Co. Wexford. It was here among the woods, streams, and ponds that his early interest in natural history began. He was sent back to the Isle of Man to the preparatory school at Douglas, and then King William's School, Castletown, before entering TCD (1875) at the age of 16. That same year he began entering his nature observations in his diary, a habit he continued for the rest of his life. After a successful undergraduate career, where he achieved first-class honours in most years, he received a gold medal (BA 1879). He entered King's Inns and was called to the bar (1881). However, he accepted only one brief, as circumstances directed his career towards journalism. Arthur Edward Guinness (qv) (Lord Ardilaun) offered him a position as his agent in Dublin and while there he began writing articles for the Dublin Daily Express, mainly on natural history. With the purchase of the Daily Express and the Dublin Evening Herald by Ardilaun, Moffat was asked to assist in editing both papers. He wrote on a wide variety of subjects – literature, history, politics, and natural history – and reviewed books. Some of his fellow journalists knew him only as ‘Bugman’ from his subject writings. His somewhat bird-like demeanour gave rise to a remark of one of his colleagues that he would not be surprised if Moffat flew into the office and lighted on the gas bracket. He was also described as a real last-ditch unionist, and as his conservative political views corresponded closely with Ardilaun's, he also wrote nearly all the political leaders in the Daily Express.
Outside his journalistic work he continued his detailed observations of natural history, the greater part carried out at his family home in Wexford, which he visited frequently. He noted details of birds, their songs and habits, and spent nights in the surrounding woods and heaths observing nocturnal animals. He also spent a lot of time at the house of the ornithologist Richard Barrington (qv) in Fassaroe, Bray, Co. Wicklow, which was a hospitable meeting place for visiting naturalists. Barrington's son John remembers a key labelled ‘Mr Moffat's room’, which was for a bedroom in a range of buildings detached from the house. From there Moffat made his nightly observations on bats and other animals without disturbing anyone. He also made periodic visits to the Isle of Man, England, and Wales, but even when living in Dublin travelled little outside the city besides excursions with the Dublin Naturalists' Field Club, of which he led many.
Most of his articles on bird life in the Daily Express were of a popular nature. His more numerous scientific notes, observations, and book reviews were published in the Irish Naturalist (1892–1924) and after 1925 in the Irish Naturalists' Journal. He wrote a few articles in the Zoologist before 1900. His largest work was a biography and memorial to his old naturalist friend Alexander G. More (qv), Life and letters of Alexander G. More (1897). Although he was also urged to write a standard book on Irish birds, he said he had no ambition to do so. However, he freely helped with advice and the editing of the publications of his peers: Birds of Ireland by Richard Ussher (qv) and Robert Warren (1829–1915) and The migration of birds at Irish light stations by Richard Barrington; the second edition by Nathaniel Colgan (qv) and Reginald Scully (qv) of Cybele Hibernica; Irish topographical botany by R. L. Praeger (qv); and Colgan's Flora of Dublin. His most important contribution to ornithology was his paper ‘The spring rivalry of birds' (published in the Irish Naturalist June 1903), the first detailed exploration in Ireland or Britain of the territorial behaviour of birds. In his opinion (which he later elaborated), spring rivalry among birds was primarily for the possession of territory, and not a search for a mate. This theory went almost unnoticed for twenty years, but recognition came later when a well known American ornithologist, Margaret Morse Nice, paid tribute (1935) to Moffat as an early exponent of the territory theory, and the English ornithologist James Fisher, in his book Birds as animals (1939), gave Moffat credit for having been the first to use ‘territory’ in its modern sense in 1903. His works were often quoted in standard bird books of the time, Coward's Birds of the British Isles (1920) and Witherby's Handbook of British birds (1938–41).
Moffat was an active member of the Dublin Naturalists' Field Club (from 1902), of which he was president (1906–7, 1923), secretary (1914–15), and treasurer (1922–35). He was elected MRIA (1912) and was a member of the Zoological Society of Ireland and a founding member of the Irish Society of the Protection of Birds, where he was chairman, treasurer, and secretary for over twenty years. With the help of the lawyer Samuel Lombard Brown (qv), who was also president of the society, he succeeded in getting a wild birds protection act passed by the Oireachtas in 1930. Prior to this, bird sanctuaries were not legally protected. He was also instrumental in the establishment of the North Bull Island sanctuary, Dublin, which was a popular winter shooting spot for birds. First recommended by Fr P. G. Kennedy, the area is now protected under several designations in Irish and international law. As an early conservationist, he wrote frequently to the press, pointing out the educational and cultural advantages of having a bird sanctuary and an open space at the city's door.
As well as his work on birds he made valuable contributions in other areas of natural history. His pioneering work on bats in Ireland entailed many all-night vigils. At Ballyhyland, where a colony of long-eared bats resided in the passage to his bedroom, he made observations for four years, establishing their winter and spring breeding patterns. Numerous observations were made on several other bat species, and much of his work still forms the basis of knowledge today. He also wrote about forty publications on insects, largely as a result of his research into the insect food of bats. His list ‘The mammals of Ireland’ was published in the RIA Proc., xliv B (1937), 61–128. He was regarded as one of the great Irish naturalists who flourished at the end of the nineteenth century, and Praeger described him as one of the most accomplished naturalists Ireland had ever produced.
In 1916 he returned to the family home at Ballyhyland to help his ailing mother manage the estate. After her death (1918) he sold the property (1919) and moved back to Dublin, continuing to write for the Daily Express till its last issue in 1921. The family home was later taken over by the land commission and the house was demolished. He also held investments in the Isle of Man, which contributed to his financial independence. From 1926 he lived in a flat at 21 Lower Baggot St. In his latter years he continued his nature observations in the Phoenix Park, the Botanic Gardens, and St Stephen's Green, and devoted much of his time to the work of the bird protection society. Despite his keen observations he never used binoculars, claiming: ‘I could never manage these instruments’ (Irish Naturalist, 1946).
A charming, courteous, somewhat shy man, he was always willing to help others and give freely of his knowledge. His ready wit always smoothed over any awkward situations. Outside of natural history he held lifelong interests in history, French, and the classics, especially Greek. He died, unmarried, 14 October 1945 in Dublin. Over ninety of his notebooks and diaries were donated to the RIA (1947).