96 ORIGINAL MEMBERS. 



been kindly placed at the service of tlie writer of this notice 

 by their present custodian, Mr. H. A. Macpherson, giving- 

 almost the only information to be obtained as to this period 

 of Gurney's life. They will compare well with those written 

 by any other youthful zoologist. Zeal is, of course^ to be 

 expected in a greater or less degree, and here it is found to 

 be in the former ; but it seems to be in all cases tempered 

 by a sober judgment ; and, if a partiality be observable 

 towards whatever relates to the zoology, and especially the 

 ornithology, of Norfolk, it must be remembered that this 

 was the subject on which the writer undertook to inform his 

 correspondent, while, as the correspondence advances, what 

 may be called its breadth of view decidedly increases. More- 

 ovei', it seems to be strictly according to the fitness of things 

 that a young naturalist should begin by paying attention to 

 the objects which, being the nearest to him, come the more 

 closely under his observation, for thus he is able to proceed 

 from the known to the unknown — the surest mode of 

 acquiring knowledge. There have been possibly few men 

 who could, at the age of nineteen, write as Gurney did to 

 Heysham on the 8th of February, 1838 : — 



"^ Though I can seldom or never resist the temptation of 

 procuring a tolerable bird in the flesh, when opportunity 

 occurs, I care very little for them after I have once learnt 

 them by heart, as I contrive to preserve them almost as well 

 in my memory as I could hope to do in my cabinet. I there- 

 fore generally palm their rem.ains off on some of my friends ; 

 because, though I know that in themselves they are often 

 worthless, yet I always faricy that there is some interest 

 in comparing specimens of the same bird from different 

 localities." 



This last must have been an original observation, as it was 

 made before the question of local variation of species had 

 been publicly mooted ! He Avent on to say, " it seems to 

 me impossible that any stuffed specimen can bear much 

 resemblance to the living bird"" — a remark which, even 

 allowing for a general improvement of the taxidermist's art, 

 is, on the whole, as true now as it was then. 



