Wirt Robinson

Colonel Wirt Robinson (16 October 1864 – 19 January 1929) was an American army officer, naturalist, and served as a professor of chemistry, mineralogy and geology at the U. S. Military Academy.

Robinson was born at Fernley, Buckingham County, Virginia, son of William Russell and Evelyn Cabell.

Fernley was a plantation begun by his grandfather Clifford Cabell on the edge of the James River and with dense forest.

His father and maternal grandfather inculcated an interest in natural history at an early age and he maintained a diary of observations.

His first major trip in 1892 was to the island of Curaçao in Columbia accompanied by his wife (Alice after whom the bird Amazilia aliciae was named but is now treated as a subspecies of the copper-rumped hummingbird) and brother Clifford “Cabell” Robinson.