Trippe, T. Martin, b. ca. 1848

"And now, as the old year is dying, I will just write one thing more; -- I am going to devote my whole life to the birds, -- in short I am going to be what Audubon was, -- an ornithologist." (1(5):60) An idealistic young man from Orange, N.J., T. Martin Trippe became entranced early in life, and by the age of seventeen, he had begun to assemble a meticulous record of observations on the local avifauna and flora and the beginnings of a private cabinet of natural history.

Raised in comfortable circumstances in Orange, N.J., Trippe began educating himself in natural history at fourteen, commencing his first ornithological journal in the following year, 1863. Relishing his time traipsing through the woods, recording birds he had seen (or killed), he did not stint on the formal study of nature, building a small library on the subject as time and finances permitted. Killing, dissecting, and mounting dozens of birds, he also collected eggs, and apparently made efforts to keep live birds in a cage, including a broad-winged buzzard ( Buteo pennsylvanicus ) that he had shot but not quite killed. The heart of his scientific activities, however, was his carefully recorded observations on seasonal arrivals and departures, and his notes on disparate aspects of avian biology and behavior, including songs, nesting behavior, habitat, feeding behavior, and abundance.

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