Letters, Extracts, Notices, fyc. 393 



sending him from time to time birds, mostly obtained in 

 Norfolk ; for at this time Gurney had not begun a collection 

 of his own. That his generosity was then as great as it 

 continued iu after years is shown by his letters to Heysham, 

 which have fortunately been preserved, and have been kindly 

 placed at the service of the 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. Moreover, 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 therefore generally palm their remains off on some of my 

 friends ; because, though I know that in themselves they 

 often are worthless, yet I always fancy 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 the local variation of species had 



SER. VI. — VOL. II. 2 F 



