116 "The Times" on John Gould. UisloT 



After Linnaeus came other labourers into the field, and among 

 them, as a star of the first order, the immortal Cuvier. The 

 progress of zoology began now to receive a new impulse. 

 Throughout e\ery branch of this science the imi)etus was com- 

 municated, and in that of ornithology more particularly rapid 

 advancement was made. At the close of the 18th and beginning 

 of the 19th century the stores of ornithology, so scanty in the 

 time of Linnseus, were almost daily increased by new accessions 

 from various parts of the world, for now islands and continents 

 began to be more ardently exi)lored, and vessels of research re- 

 turned from their surveys, with specimens of the fauna and flora 

 of the regions visited. The acquisition of treasures excited the 

 thirst for fresh novelties. The })lains of India were open — the 

 chains of the Ghauts attracted the sportsman. The Nepal and 

 Himalaya Range.s were accessible — vast tracts of Australia w^ere 

 receiving a tide of European colonisation. The Oceanic clusters 

 of palm-clothed isles were becoming familiar. South America 

 was penetrated, its forests trodden, its mountains scaled, and its 

 Pampas traversed by men keen in the course of science. As 

 geognosy became more extensive, so zoological knowledj;e in- 

 creased in a like ratio, and in the department of ornithology 

 more particularly, the most interesting discoveries were made. 

 The continental naturalists were all on the alert ; the zoolog}^ of 

 \oyagers was published, and valued works from the pens of 

 Temminck, Vieillot, De Blainville, L'Herminier, and a host of 

 l)hil(jsoj)hic ornithologists and general zoologists, were given to 

 the world with, till then, unexami)led rapidity; nor was England 

 in the background. Between the years 1821 and 1824 appeared 

 Ivatham's useful, if not brilliant. General History of Birds — a 

 work of reference — and Selby's British Ornitholocfy, a costly 

 publication, was welcomed by the public. But in this brief survey 

 it is almost invidious to mention some names to the exclusion 

 of others; yet we cannot pass over Wilson, the eloquent author 

 of the Birds of America, for we claim him as a British naturalist. 



At this crisis, under the auspices of Mr. Vigors, Sir H. Davy. 

 Sir Stamford Raffles, and others, the Zoological Society of Lon- 

 don was established. This institution became the depository of 

 the noble Rafflesian collection, to which, in the ornithological 

 department, the late Mr. \ igors added largely. The museum of 

 the Linnsen Society had already received a valuable series of 

 birds from Australia; the museum of the Hon. East India 

 Company became enriched by collections from India, Malay, and 

 the great Malayan Islands. The I'riti.sh Museum brought her 

 stores to light, and adding to these, through the zeal of her 

 talented officers, now presents us with an ornithological series 

 that may vie with the finest which Paris or Leyden or Frankfort 

 can produce. When once public feeling is directed to the fur- 

 therance of a good object, how much may be effected! A spirit 

 for the maintenance of our national character in a scientific 

 point of view had gone forth. Private collections of ornithology 

 were made. .\ noblcm.ui, alike exalted by his rank and by his 



