Background
Tunstall was born at Burton Constable in Yorkshire.
Tunstall was born at Burton Constable in Yorkshire.
Being a Catholic, he was educated at Douai in France.
He was the author of Ornithologica Britannica (1771), probably the first British work to use binomial nomenclature. In 1760 he succeeded to the family estates of Scargill, Hutton, Long Villers and Wycliffe. On completing his studies he took up residence in Welbeck Street, London, where he formed an extensive museum, as well as a large collection of living birds and animals.
He is known for discovering the Peregrine Falcon.
Tunstall became a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London at the age of twenty-one, and in 1771 was elected a fellow of the Royal Society. Tunstall died at Wycliffe, and his estates passed to his half-brother, William Constable.
Constable invited Thomas Bewick to Wycliffe where he spent two months making drawings from the bird specimens. The collection was eventually purchased by the Newcastle Society in 1822, and formed the basis of the Natural History Society of Northumberland, Durham and Newcastle upon Tyne Museum.
Royal Society.