BIOGHAPIIICAL SKETCH. IX 



the great work on the ' Birds of Australia/ which makes 

 seven folio volumes and occupied seven years in its produc- 

 tion, being completed in 1818. One of the features of this 

 work is the great increase in our knowledge of the range 

 and habits of Petrels and other sea-birds, to which the author 

 paid great attention during his travels, and is by far the 

 most important, from an ornithological point of view, of all 

 Gould^s works. 



Within a year of Mr. GoukFs returu from his adventurous 

 voyage he had the misfortune to lose his wife, and for some 

 time he was completely overwhelmed by his bereavement. 

 His collectors in Australia too, about the same period, lost 

 their lives ; one of them, Mr. Gilbert, was killed during Dr. 

 Leichhardt^s expedition overland from Moreton Bay to Port 

 Essington, and Mr. Drummond, while collecting in Western 

 Australia, was also murdered by natives, and a third collector 

 was killed by the explosion of a gun on one of the islands of 

 Bass's Straits. It speaks volumes, however, for the zeal 

 and energy with which Mr. Gould had prosecuted his re- 

 searches in the Australian continent that very few birds 

 (sufficient only to form a supplement in a single folio volume) 

 have been discovered since he left the field of his labours in 

 that quarter of the globe. 



Another landmark in the career of this great ornithologist 

 was the publication of his ' Monograph of the Trochilidse, or 

 Family of Humming-Birds/ These lovely little birds had 

 been for a long time favourites with Mr. Gould, who gra- 

 dually began to amass that fine collection which has been 

 the admiration of naturalists for so many years. Taking 

 advantage of the Great Exhibition of 1851, he obtained per- 

 mission from the Zoological Society to erect at his own cost 

 a large building in their gardens in the Regent's Park, where 

 the collection was open to the public at a charge of sixpence 

 per head. A considerable sum was realized by this exhibi- 

 tion, and a large number of subscribers to his monograph 

 were obtained, including nearly all the royal families of 



