DELAWARE VALLEY ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 6 



self continually to the pursuit of natural history, collecting as- 

 siduously about home ; insects, birds, and geological specimens 

 especially claiming his attention. He also took more extended 

 trips on foot and horseback, visiting all the states east of the 

 Mississippi and north of the Ohio as well as Virginia, Kentucky, 

 Tennessee and portions of Canada. He also visited Europe in 

 1842-1843, again in 1844 and for the last time in 1851. On 

 these trips he collected material of all sorts and in Europe pur- 

 chased many valuable collections for the Academy of Natural 

 Sciences of Philadelphia, some of them at that time the most 

 famous collections of their kind in existence. 



Dr. Wilson's connection with the Academy began in June, 

 1832, when he was elected a member, but his active participa- 

 tion in its affairs did not begin until after the death of his father 

 in December, 1843. 



Starting in 1844 with the gift of a collection of insects ob- 

 tained near his home at Newark, Delaware, and a series of min- 

 erals from the north of England, there flowed into the Academy 

 an almost continuous stream of donations covering various de- 

 partments of natural history while all available books were im- 

 ported for the library regardless of expense. It has been said 

 that all one had to do in those days was to express to Dr. Wil- 

 son his desire to see a certain work and it was procured. 



Mr. Edward Wilson, who was living in England at this time, 

 acted as his brother's agent in securing many of the books and 

 specimens and presented the Academy with many others on his 

 own account. John Cassin was just about to publish his first 

 ornithological contribution when Dr. Wilson began his gifts to 

 the Academy and no doubt through his influence ornithology 

 received most of Dr. Wilson's attention at the start. Later vast 

 collections of fossils, mollusks, Crustacea and minerals were pur- 

 chased, many of them rich in types; while after 1860 Dr. Wilson 

 transferred his interest almost entirely to the Entomological 

 Society of Philadelphia, now intimately associated with the 

 Academy as its entomological branch and became an authority 

 upon the Diptera, although he steadfastly refrained from pub- 

 lishing the results of his studies. 



It is the ornithological collections that interest us most in the 



