delaware valley ornithological club. 61 



William H. Werner 



1842—1912 



William H. Werner, a Corresponding Member of the Club, 

 died at his home in Atlantic City, N. J., May 13, 1912, aged 

 seventy years. Mr. Werner was born at Nazareth, Pennsyl- 

 vania, January 18, 1842 and at an early age became interested 

 in collecting birds and in taxidermy. 



He traveled in various parts of the United States, Mexico and 

 the Bahamas in search of specimens which he mounted with 

 much skill. For many years past his collection has been on 

 exhibition on the ' ' Boardwalk ' ' at Atlantic City and is familiar 

 to visitors as the ''Wonderland." Previously some of them 

 were exhibited at the Centennial Exposition in 1876 and were 

 pronounced by Mr. William Brewster as ' ' masterpieces of taxi- 

 dermal skill". 



Mr. Werner was an unassuming man, with no ambition for 

 such reputation as may be gained from publication, and who 

 found fulfillment of all his desires in the collecting and mount- 

 ing of his specimens. Unfortunately his modesty has deprived 

 ornithology of many valuable facts concerning the habits and 

 distribution of the birds which he met with. It must not be 

 supposed however that he withheld the information which he 

 had acquired, for on the contrary he cheerfully shared it with 

 anyone who was interested and placed no restriction upon its use. 



In the "Nuttall Bulletin" for 1879 (pp. 75, 80, 99, 103) 

 Mr. Brewster discusses briefly several rare birds and eggs which 

 formed part of " a superb collection ' ' obtained by Mr. Werner 

 in Comal County, Texas during April and May 1878, and pub- 

 lishes accounts supplied by Mr. Werner on the breeding of the 

 Golden-cheeked Warbler and Black-capped Vireo. Later in the 

 October number for the same year appears a colored plate of a 

 pair of the Vireos and their nest from an exquisite little study 

 in water colors by Mr. Werner himself. 



Of late years Mr. Werner has been taxidermist for the New 

 Jersey State Museum, and the writer has been indebted to him 

 for valuable data on New Jersey birds, which appeared in the 

 recent report on birds of the State. — W. S. 



