109 
MEMOIR OF THE LATE JOHN GOULD, FBS. 
Zoouoeicat science has sustained no slight loss in the death 
of Mr. John Gould, F.R.S., which took place at his residence in 
London, on the 3rd February last, at the ripe age of seventy- 
seven. 
For more than forty years Mr. Gould’s name has been 
intimately associated with Ornithology, of which science he was 
justly regarded as one of the leading exponents; and the magni- 
ficently illustrated folios which he published from time to time 
have rendered his name familiar, not only to naturalists all the 
world over, but to those whose positions and means enable them — 
to cultivate a taste for the artistic and beautiful. 
Mr. Gould’s first important work, ‘A Century of Himalaya 
Birds,’ appeared in 1882. This was followed in 1834 by his 
‘Monograph of the Toucans,’ a second edition of which was pub- 
lished in 1854. In 1837 he commenced his ‘Icones Avium,’ 
which was completed the following year, and which contained 
descriptions and figures of many new and rare birds from 
different parts of the world. In 1837 also his important work 
on the ‘ Birds of Kurope,’ in five vols. folio, was finished, and it 
was on the completion of this that he conceived the idea of 
visiting Australia, with a view to investigate its then almost 
unknown fauna, and attempt a general history of the Ornithology 
of that vast region so interesting to naturalists. To accomplish 
this, it was evident that a personal visit to Australia was 
necessary, for without this it would be impossible to furnish more 
than the bare nomenclature and description of form and colour 
of such species as might at uncertain intervals be collected and 
transmitted to him. To gain a just and accurate knowledge of 
the habits, manners, migration, food, and nidification of the 
birds of Australia, subjects on which next to nothing was then 
known, he felt that he must himself sojourn in their native wilds, 
and watch them in the grassy plain, the tangled bush, and the 
gloomy forest. Animated by the spirit of a Wilson or Andubon, 
he determined to leave England for Australia, and trust for the 
repayment of the heavy expenses which such an expedition would 
entail, to the success of his work, to which, that it might be 
