DELAWARE VALLEY ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 



THE BIRDS OF EAST LOTHIAN 



AND A PORTION OF 



THE ADJOINING COUNTIES 



WILLIAM P. TURNBULL 



Gladsmuir 



Member of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia; 



of the Lyceum of Natural History, New York; 



Corresponding Member of the Natural History Society of Glasgow, etc. 



[ A vignette of the Dunlin inserted here] 



GLASGOW: PRINTED FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION 

 1867 



There appear to have been two sets of this edition issued, one 

 an octavo of 150 copies, the other a large paper issue of 50 

 copies, two of which were printed on vellum/-^ Both of these 

 issues were the same as to printing and paging (48 pages), and 

 contained besides the Dunlin vignette, a frontispiece in color of 

 the Great Spotted Woodpecker, Picv.s major, drawn on stone 

 by Edwin Sheppard, and engraved by Bowen & Co., and twelve 

 other illustrations of birds, scattered through the text. Accord- 

 ing to Mr. Gray, about one-third of the edition was destroyed 

 by fire in the publishing house at Glasgow, rendering copies of 

 the book very scarce. 



Turnbull came to America in the year 1850, when twenty-one 

 years of age. I have not been able to discover anything con- 

 cerning his occupation or manner of life ; but that ornithology 

 was uppermost in his mind is evident from the above-mentioned 

 catalogue. We know he was an enthusiastic admirer of Alex- 

 ander Wilson, and had in his possession, according to Mr. 

 Gray, a trunk containing all of Mr. Wilson's " personal effects 

 at the time of his death in 1813, his gun, pistols, books, letters, 

 proof sheets, and plates of his great work on the birds of Amer- 

 ica, paint-box, drawings, saddle, his will, portrait, and anno- 

 tated copy of his poems — all of which Wilson left to a Miss Sarah 



*One of these vellum copies, Mr. S. N. Rhoads informs me, is now in the 

 libraiy of Mr. John E. Thayer of Lancaster, Mass. 



