CASSINIA 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE DELAWARE 

 VALLEY ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB 



No. XX. PHILADELPHIA, PA. 1916. 



William P. Turnbull/ 



BY SPENCER TROTTER. 



American ornithology had its roots in that growth of interest 

 in nature that marked the close of the eighteenth century. 

 For the first hundred years of settlement, there was little if any 

 inquiry, in a scientific way, into the natural history of the New 

 World. There was small chance of encouragement for its 

 development. John Bartram and Benjamin Franklin were 

 unique and shining lights. The minds that were first engaged 

 in collecting and presenting the data concerning the native ani- 

 mals and plants, were those of men who later came to these 

 shores, bringing with them the curiosity and interest that was 

 developing in the atmosphere of European thought — Audubon, 

 Wilson, Michaux, Bonaparte, and Rafinesque, all alike immi- 

 grants, but immigrants with a love of nature and a strong bias 

 toward natural history pursuits. Alexander Wilson, the Scotch 

 weaver, had watched birds on the banks of the Calder, and this 

 interest was again awakened in his tramp to Philadelphia along 



* The writer is indebted to Mr. Euthven Deane of Chicago for much of the 

 matter contained in this paper, as well as for the use of ' ' the only known 

 likeness ' ' of Tumbull. 



