Thomas Horsfield

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Thomas Horsfield, M. D., (1773 - 1859) was an American physician and naturalist.

Horsfield was born in Philadelphia and studied medicine. He worked as a doctor in Java for many years. The East India Company took control of the island from the Dutch in 1811, and Horsfield began to collect plants and animals on behalf of his friend Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles. In 1819 he was forced to leave the island due to ill health and became keeper and later curator of the East India Company's museum in Leadenhall Street, London.

Horsfield was appointed assistant secretary of the Zoological Society of London at its formation in 1826.

Horsfield wrote Zoological Researches in Java and the Neighbouring Islands (1824). He also classified a number of birds with Nicholas Aylward Vigors, most notably in their A description of the Australian birds in the collection of the Linnean Society; with an attempt at arranging them according to their natural affinities (Trans. Linn. Soc. Lond. (1827)).

The Horsfield's Tortoise or the Russian Tortoise "Testudo horsfieldii" is named after him.

The Horsfield's Goshawk or the Chinese Sparrowhawk Accipiter soloensis is also named after him.