Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Brewster, William (ornithologist)

BREWSTER, William, ornithologist, b. in South Reading (now Wakefield), Mass., 5 July, 1851. He was graduated at the Cambridge high school in 1869, but was prevented by a difficulty with his eyes from entering Harvard. Subsequently he devoted his attention exclusively to the study of ornithology, becoming in 1880 assistant in charge of the collection of birds and mammals in the Boston society of natural history, and in 1885 curator of ornithology at the museum of comparative zoölogy, Cambridge. Mr. Brewster is a fellow of the American association for the advancement of science, and in 1876 became president of the Nuttall ornithological club of Cambridge. He has published articles in the “Bulletin of the Nuttall Ornithological Club,” in the “Annals of the New York Lyceum of Natural History,” “Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History,” “The Auk,” and other periodicals.