Nan Dunbar

Nan Dunbar, whose version of the play was finally published in 1995, the year she retired, was 76.

A perfectionist who believed in making herself an expert in her chosen subject, she set herself the task of becoming an ornithologist, having realised that the Greek author had drawn on his knowledge of local birds in ancient Athens before writing what is now the longest of his surviving plays.

Nan Dunbar with the late Lord Macmillan Armed with his descriptions, she spent much time in the library of the Edward Grey Institute in Oxford and devoted her holidays to birdwatching abroad.

When her edition of the play was finally published in 1995, it referred to 150 species of birds -- twice the number in the original text -- and won the highest praise from reviewers and fellow academics.

The study of birds from ancient times is recognised as the finest edition of the play ever to be published.

Born in Glasgow in 1928 into a family which had previously no experience of university education, she proved to be a brilliant student and developed a passion for Latin and Greek.

Having taken a First at Glasgow University, she took two more in the Classics Tripos at Girton College, Cambridge.

After being appointed as a lecturer in Greek at Edinburgh University in 1952, she returned to Girton three years later as a research fellow and lecturer in classics.

In 1957 she moved to St Andrew's University, and in 1965 became a fellow at Somerville College, Oxford, where she stayed until her retirement.

She remained as energetic as ever, producing a student version of her version of The Birds, and was secretary of the Association for Oxford University Pensioners.

She is survived by her husband, Mervyn Jones, himself a Greek scholar before he joined the Foreign Office, and whom she married in 1972 in the chapel of Somerville College, of which she was steward for many years.