BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH*. 



John Gould was boini at Lyme^ in Dorsetshire, in 1804, 

 and in early life he passed several years under the care of 

 the late Mr. J. T. Aiton, of the Royal Gardens at Windsor. 

 In the year 1827 he came to London and became Taxidermist 

 to the Zoological Society's Museum, where he had the good 

 fortune to obtain the intimate friendship of Mr. N, A. Vigors, 

 then one of the leading English naturalists ; and through 

 him John Gould received his first opportunity of appearing 

 as an author. So rare were Himalayan birds in those days 

 that a small collection was thought worthy of description by 

 Mr. Vigors in the ' Proceedings ' of the Zoological Society, 

 and. the figuring of these specimens was commenced by 

 Mr. Gould under the title of ' A Century of Birds from the 

 Himalayan Mountains.' By this time, however, an event 

 had taken place which had an influence on the whole of his 

 later life, viz. his marriage with Miss Coxen, the daughter 

 of Mr. Nicholas Coxen of Kent. Besides her other ac- 

 complishments, Mrs. Gould was an admirable draughtswoman, 

 and, from her husband's sketches, she transferred to stone the 

 figures of the above-named work. Its success was so great 

 that in 1832 the ' Birds of Europe ' was commenced, and 

 finished in five large folio volumes in 1837, while simul- 

 taneously, in 1834, he issued 'A Monograph of the Rham- 

 phastidse, or Family of Toucans,' and, in 1838, 'A Monograph 



* Taken from ' Nature,' with slight alterations. 



