Introduction ix 



Turner married Jane, daughter of George Ander, Alder- 

 man of Cambridge, by whom he had issue Winifred, Peter and 

 Elizabeth. 



It must be understood that, his scientific work apart, 

 nearly the whole of Turner's life was spent in religious 

 controversy, and he published a considerable number of 

 polemical works, the titles of which may be seen in the 

 bibliography appended to the excellent ' Life ' prefixed to 

 Mr Jackson's facsimile reprint of the Libellus de re herbaria*, 

 whence all the particulars above given are taken. Other 

 lists of Turner's works may be found in Cooper's Athenae 

 Cantabrigienses (I. pp. 257 259) and the Dictionary of 

 National Biography (LVII. pp. 365, 366). 



Turner's object in writing the present treatise is fully set 

 forth in his ' Epistola Nuncupatoria ' prefixed to it. While 

 attempting to determine the principal kinds of birds named 

 by Aristotle and Pliny, he has added notes from his own 

 experience on some species which had come under his 

 observation, and in so doing he has produced the first book 

 on Birds which treats them in anything like a modern 

 scientific spirit and not from the medical point of view 

 adopted by nearly all his predecessors; nor is it too much 

 to say that almost every page bears witness to a personal 

 knowledge of the subject, which would be distinctly creditable 

 even to a modern ornithologist. 



This knowledge is especially evident in his account of the 

 habits of the Hobby (p. 19), Hen-Harrier (p. 19), Water- 

 Ousel (p. 23), Moor-Buzzard (p. 33), Osprey (p. 37), God wit 

 (p. 45), Wheatear (p. 53), Sandpiper (p. 57), Fieldfare (p. 59), 

 Cuckoo (p. 69), Black-headed Gull (p. 77), Black Tern 

 (p. 79), Swallows (p. 101), Cormorant (p. 1 1 1), Shrike (p. 1 19), 

 Redbreast and Redstart (p. 157); while his keen eye for 

 distinctions is shown in his descriptions of the Black Cock 

 and Grey Hen (p. 43), Godwit (p. 45), Tree-Creeper (p. 53), 



1 Libellus de re herbaria novus, by William Turner, originally 

 published in 1538, reprinted in facsimile, with notes, modern names, 

 and a Life of the Author, by Benjamin Daydon Jackson, F.L.S. 

 Privately Printed. London: 1877. 



5 



