 He was president of the Liverpool Field Naturalists' Club from 1861 to 1881.He especially worked on the Ravenhead collections, almost wholly made up of Upper Carboniferous flora, fish, bivalves and insect remains.Higgins had suggested that Ravenhead donate his collections to the Liverpool Museum and the donation gained a home with the construction of the railway in 1870, which exposed two Carboniferous seams known as the Upper and Lower Ravenhead.