Physical Features and Habitats 15 



Ornithological department has specimens of most 

 of the birds that make their home with us during 

 the spring and summer, as well as those that are 

 but transient visitors." This exhibit doubtless in- 

 cludes the Townsend collection, as well as those 

 personally collected and mounted by Philip P. 

 Sharpies,^ then lecturing in the building on chemis- 

 try and philosophy. No catalogue of this collection 

 appears, although it is still in part preserved in the 

 Normal School Library. John Cassin,* short, thick- 

 set and genial; entered Westtown School from 

 Providence, Delaware county, in October, 1 829, and 

 probably soon found place among the legion of 

 youthful egg collectors that flourished in the school 

 "in spite of all sumptuary laws and abolition" ; 

 though he later became one of the most bookish 

 of ornithologists. 



In the spring of 1833, Dr. Thomas B. Wilson,^' 

 the generous patron of the Philadelphia Academy of 

 Natural Sciences; bought a farm at New London, 

 where he summered and collected until 1841. 



Benj. M. Everhart^^ of West Chester, was an- 

 other of our pioneer naturalists, and though he 

 specialized in botany, he was interested in birds as 

 early as 1839 and for nearly half a century later. 



William L. Baily^^ of Philadelphia, who entered 

 Westtown School early in 1839, was a proficient 

 artist and taxidermist. He spent some of his sum- 

 mers in the vicinity of West Chester. 



Lucius D. Price,^'* of West Chester, was also 

 a close student of bird life, and H. B. Graves,^* 

 also of West Chester until the last few years of his 



