Willis Woodford Worthington was born on November 14, 1860, in Shelter Island, NY to George Washington Worthington (1836-1867) and Mary C. Raynor (1836-1885). His father was a farmer and his mother, a tailor.
As a youth he developed an interest in the natural history of local birds and mammals and became a self-taught taxidermist. His bird collection began at age 11 with an American Pipit taken October 26, 1872, in Shelter Island. In the 1880 Federal Census, Willis is listed as a taxidermist and by 1885 he enlarged his home to accommodate his growing collection of mounted birds and mammals. He married Harriet Winslow Beebe (1867-1948) at this time.
He was elected as an associate member of the American Ornithologists’ Union in 1889 as noted in the 1890 The Auk journal.
In 1893, William Brewster named a subspecies of marsh wren, Cistothorus palustris griseus, as the Worthington’s Marsh Wren which was discovered in Georgia by Willis in 1887.
Willis was hired by ornithologists to collect birds in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Florida, the Carolinas, Texas, Mexico, Panama, Puerto Rico and the Bahamas. Museums, such as the Carnegie Museum, and other institutions would support his expeditions.
He not only collected birds and bird eggs, but also snakes, animals, and Indian relics from all over the United States. In 1902, he donated his collection to the Shelter Island Library where they built a wing to the library to accommodate the new museum.
Willis wrote numerous articles about his bird observations and expeditions and was also mentioned in many articles.
In 1904, Willis was arrested for shooting wild birds where he lived in Shelter Island. Complaints had been made, and officials raided his home to find over a hundred protected wild birds. Willis claimed he had a license to acquire birds and mount them for scientific purposes. Though rumors were that he was selling the birds commercially after shooting them on posted property. He was held and a court date was scheduled for the following week. However, for some unapparent reason, Willis’s lawyer asked the court to accept a plea of guilty from his client and to set the fine at $250. The judge agreed and the case was closed abruptly.
This incident did not hurt his reputation as Willis Worthington continued to collect and perform taxidermy. In 1931, he was recognized with honor by the Biological Survey Department of Agriculture for his long and faithful service (since 1887) on the reporting of migratory birds that visited Long Island.
Willis W. Worthington died on October 4, 1939, in Shelter Island, NY and is buried there.
Sources: Ancestry.com, Findagrave.com, Newspapers.com, Biodiversitylibrary.org, Shelter Island Historical Society
There are 9 mounted birds collected by Willis in 1888, 1890 and 1892 in Pember’s collection, but no eggs. There are 13 sets of eggs in Williams’ collection dating from 1879 to 1896.
