18 



THE OOLOGIST 



ing member of the club died at his 

 home in Atlantic City, N. J., May 13, 

 1912, aged 70 years. Mr. Werner was 

 born at Nazareth, Pa., January 18, 

 1842 atid at an early age became in- 

 terested in collecting birds and in 

 taxidermy. 



He traveled in various parts of the 

 United States, Mexico and the Ba- 

 hamas in search of specimens which 

 he mounted with much skill. 



Mr. Werner was an unassummg 

 man, with no ambition for such repu 

 tation a'3 may be gained from publi- 

 cation and who found fulfillment of all 

 his desires in the collecting and mount- 

 ing of his specimens. Unfortunately 

 his modesty has deprived ornithology 

 of many valuable facts concerning 

 the habits and distribution of birds 

 with which he met It must not be 

 supposed however that he withheld 

 the information which he had ac- 

 quired, for on the contrary he cheer- 

 fully shared it with anyone who was 

 interested and placed no restriction 

 upon its use. 



Of late years Mr. Werner has been 

 taxidermist for the New Jersey Stat3 

 Museum, and the writer has be?n in- 

 debted to him for valuable data on 

 New Jersey Birds which appeared in 

 the recent report on birds of that 

 State." 



Personally 1 have known William H. 

 Werner since 1 was a small boy. 

 Wonderland at Atlantic City was al- 

 ways an attraction for me and it was 

 therefore natural that at Mr. Werner's 

 death when the collection was offered 

 for sale I should be somewhat inter- 

 ested. I purchased the collection in 

 June 1915 and at once began the con- 

 struction of a home for it. It was 

 transported to Norristown in Septem- 

 ber of that year. 



The Regar Museum of Natural Hist- 

 ory was not only founded to house 

 the magnificent William H. Werner 



collection of Natural History but also 

 to provide a home for the Audubon 

 Club of Norristown, and kindred or- 

 ganizations, and to promote the study 

 of natural history with especial refer- 

 ence to the conservation and protec- 

 tion of bird life. The Museum is lo- 

 cated at DeKalb and Fornance streets, 

 Norristown, Pa., and was formally 

 opened by the Burgess and members 

 cf the Norristown Town Council with 

 appropriate ceremonies on December 

 .5th, 1915. 



The building is of fireproof con- 

 struction with two floors 25 x 70 feet 

 The entire first floor and one-half of 

 the second are devoted to the exhibits, 

 while a lecture hall occupies the re- 

 maining portion. An original scheme 

 ^f electric lighting is used over the 

 cases and each one is carefully marked 

 with name and locality of each speci- 

 men. The lecture hall is fully 

 equipped with all the necessary ap- 

 paratus for the projection of still and 

 motion pictures. 



While the main portion of the col- 

 lection consists of the Werner groups 

 there are also exhibits of corals, 

 she'.ls, Indian and war relics and 

 rt::cr interesting material Situated 

 at one end of the lecture hall is a 

 large case containing nearly all the 

 commoner varieties of birds used in 

 class study. These prove of great 

 value to the many children who with 

 their teachers visit the Museum fre 

 quently. There is also a small refer- 

 ence library on natural history and 

 kindred subjects the volumes of 

 which are not allowed outside of the 

 building. The Museum also contains 

 a number of extinct or nearly extinct 

 l)irds. Among these might be men- 

 tioned the Passenger Pigeon, Heath 

 Hen, Whooping Crane, Carolina Para- 

 quet and Ivory-billed Woodpecker. 

 These together with an authentic set 

 of eggs of the Whooping Crane and 



