 He was among the first to study the interior of Ladakh and wrote about it in "The Birds of Cashmere and Ladakh".The orange bullfinch ("Pyrrhula aurantiaca") was discovered by him as also the first breeding site of brown-headed gulls ("Larus brunnicephalus") in the lakes of the Tibetan plateau.After his retirement from the army in 1873, Adams was professor of natural history at Trinity College, Dublin and Queen's College, Cork.