I PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



John K. Townsend was born in Philadelphia, October 10, 

 1809, the son of Charles and Priscilla Kirk Townsend, his family 

 being of Quaker ancestr}', highly intellectual and cultivated. 

 One of his brothers was a prominent penalogist, and his sisters 

 were writers of some note, one of them being the author of an 

 early popular book on Natural History called "Life in the 

 Insect World." John was educated at Westtown Boarding 

 School in Chester Co. , Pa. , the famous Quaker institution, upon 

 whose rolls may be found the names of Thomas Say, John 

 Cassin, Edward D. Cope, and many others prominent in science. 

 He was even then much interested in birds, and became a most 

 skilful taxidermist, his work attracting the admiration of all 

 who saw it. He spent some time in early life with a cousin, 

 the late Wm. P. Townsend, of West Chester, Pa., a man of 

 kindred tastes, and together they formed a nearly complete col- 

 lection of local birds, which is still preserved in the West 

 Chester State Normal School. 



About this time Townsend made his first noteworthy orni- 

 thological discovery. While collecting specimens for his friend 

 Dr. Ezra Michener, May 11, 1833, at New Garden, Chester 

 County, he shot a curious finch, unlike any that had previously 

 been described. Dr. Michener states that they named it in their 

 note-book Evspiza albigula, the White-throated Bunting. It 

 was subsequently, however, published by Audubon, and named 

 in honor of its discoverer E. townsendi. The specimen now in 

 the National Museum remains unique, which fact would seem 

 to point to its hybrid origin. 



In 1834, when twenty-five years of age, Townsend, in com- 

 pany with Thomas Nuttall, the botanist and ornithologist, made 

 a trip across the continent with an expedition headed by Capt. 

 Wyeth, who was interested in the recently formed Columbia 

 River Fishing and Trading Company. They went from Pitts- 

 burg by steamboat to St. Louis, and after purchasing their 

 necessary outfits, the two naturalists started on foot across the 

 state to Independence, where the caravan was encamped. They 

 encountered birds of all sorts, including vast numbers of the 

 brilliant Carolina Paroquets and dense flocks of "Wild Pigeons. 



On April 28th the expedition started, crossing to the Platte 



