CATALOGUE 



OF THE 



BIRDS OF PREY 



(ACCIPITRES and STRIGES). 



CHAPTER I. 



PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 



My late Father, Mr. J. H. Gurney, began to turn his attention 

 to the Birds of Prey in 1855, and in January 1856 he gave a 

 lecture in St. Andrew's Hall, Norwich, £f in illustration of the 

 Raptorial specimens in the Museum," a group which was 

 already ahead of any other Family of Birds there represented. 

 This lecture was the nucleus of much subsequent study, and 

 relates in detail the habits of the Vultures, Golden Eagle, 

 Condor, Caracara, and Secretary Bird : from this time Hawks 

 and Owls must have almost entirely occupied his attention, 

 and his correspondence with contemporary Naturalists 

 (amongst whom were Verreaux, Parzudaki, Blyth, AVolley, 

 Swinhoe, Gould, Brooks, Tristram, Favier, and Ayres, many 

 of whose letters remain in my possession) became large. 



Tracing the grow r th of the Collection by the Museum 

 Donation Book, it is evident that hardly a year passed 

 without some important addition. The acquisition of 

 Macharirhamphus anderssoni in 18G5, shot by and named 

 after the celebrated traveller, was a great impetus. The 

 very abnormal Goshawk Urotriorchis macrurus (Hartlaub) 

 procured in ]870, and at that time contained in no other 

 Museum except Leyden, was another incentive. Scotopelia 



B 



