72 Notice of William P. Turnbull, by Robert Gray. 



lias every where been received as a useful contribution to the 

 ornithological literature of the author's adopted country. 



Dr Turnbull was a great enthusiast in all matters relating to 

 Wilson, the poet and American ornithologist. He had in his 

 possession many deeply interesting memorials of that extraordin- 

 ary man, consisting of the trunk containing the whole of his per- 

 sonal 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 America, paint box, drawings, saddle, his will, portrait, 

 and annotated copy of his poems — all of which he had left to a 

 Miss Sarah Miller, who was pledged to become his wife, and 

 from whose representatives they were purchased by Dr Turnbull, 

 in 1868. Some of these articles are now in my possession — 

 notably his portrait in its original frame ; a drawing, cut out 

 with his knife, to replace a figure on one of his plates ; an un- 

 published letter addressed to Miss Miller, and a quantity of proof 

 plates of his work. 



Dr Turnbull visited this country in 1866, and I then had the 

 pleasure of making his personal acquaintance. His visit was but 

 short, but during our frequent interviews I could not help re- 

 marking that he was the most enthusiastic lover of birds I had 

 ever met. 



In August, 1868, the American University of Philadelphia 

 conferred upon him the degree of LL.D., and about the close of 

 that year he appears to have contemplated joining the publishing 

 house of Henry Grambo & Son, Chesnut Street, Philadelphia, 

 but failed to carry out the arrangement. He possessed a most 

 valuable library of scientific works, and he frequently told me 

 that he thought it included almost every work on Birds that had 

 been published. 



An obituary notice in an American newspaper thus concludes : 

 — " Dr Turnbull was a warm hearted friend, a genial companion, 

 a highly cultivated gentleman, a devoted father and husband, 

 and a sympathizing honest man. His death, and at so early an 

 age, will, in many places, create a void not likely very soon to be 

 filled." 



