INIRODUCTION. ix 



Within a yeai- of his return to England, Gould had the misfortune 

 (the gi-eatest that could befall liini) to lose his wife, a shock from which 

 he never recovered, and his later years were further saddened by the loss 

 of two of liis sons, both of whom had adopted the medical profession. 



It is now a matter of histoiy how Gould offered the whole of his 

 Australian collection of birds and eggs to the tnistees of the British 

 Museum for XI, 000 (after spending £2,000 on the expedition), or as a 

 donation if they would pui'chase twenty-five copies of his work. Tlie 

 collection contained examples of both sexes of nearly every known species 

 of Austridiaii birds, and mostly original types — 1,800 specimens in all, — 

 cai-efully labelled with full data. It was a national calamity that the 

 offer was declined, and, under the chagrin at the unexpected refusal of 

 his offer to the nation, Gould immediately accepted £1,000 for the 

 collection tendei'od by Dr. Thos. B. Wilson, of Philadelphia, for the 

 Academy of Natural Sciences of that city.* Great Britain's loss wa.s 

 America's gain. 



Besides being a keen ornithologist, there was business in Gould's 

 methods. At the gi-eat exhibition of 1851, ho obtained pennission to 

 erect a building at the Zoological Gai'deirs, and to exhibit his twenty-foiu' 

 ca.ses of mounted Hiuiiming Birds, his own handiwork. We are told 

 that when the season was over, the building demolished and its 

 materials sold, Gould found liimself with a clear prolit of £800. (The 

 admission was sixpence.) 



As .a man of business Gould wa.s j:)unct ilious, making it a niie to pay 

 for all the work directly it was delivered, and herein lay much of the 

 -secret of his being so well served. 



Coming nearer to the gi'eat authors individuality, those persons who 

 remember him in his eai-ly days say he was a man of singular energy, 

 with a good knowledge of the art of mounting animals. Considei-ing 

 Gould was self-taught, his talents for sketching the details of a bird 

 picture were remarkable, and, although he had excellent interpreters 

 in his wife, and, afterwards, in artist friends, still his was always the 

 moving spirit in designing the plates or the rough sketches. 



Dr. Sliarpe, who was associated much with GoiUd in his latter days, 

 when he (Gould) was invalided (with bladder complaint), and, as is well 

 known, assisted him in the prepai-ation of the " Birds of New Guinea, " 

 and after his death completed some of his other works, says that " In 



' A complete catalogue of Gould's collection of Australian Birds in the 

 Academy is likely to be published shortly. Out of 391 names ff'n-cn by Gould to 

 Australian birds the types of no less than 321 are said to be in Philadelphia. 



