MEMOIR OF THE LATE JOHN HENRY GURNEY. 
159 
When little more than nine years of age “Master J. H. Gurney” 
gave his first contribution to the Norwich Museum, which in after 
years he so greatly enriched ; and only ten years later we find the 
true spirit of the naturalist again evincing itself in that love of 
original research, which, however the school-desks might suffer, has 
rightly been said to be the surest mode of acquiring knowledge. 
The writer of the obituary notice in ‘The Ibis’ (July, 1890, 
p. 393) very truly remarks, that “ there have been possibly few 
men who could, at the age of nineteen, write as Gurney did to 
Heysham on tho 8th February, 1838: — ‘Though lean seldom or 
never resist the temptation of procuring a tolerable bird in the 
flesh, when opportunity occurs, 1 care little for them after I have 
once learnt them by heart, as 1 contrive to preserve them almost as 
well in my memory as I could hope to do in my cabinet. 1 there- 
fore generally palm their remains off on some of my friends ; 
because, though I know that in themselves they often are worthless, 
yet 1 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 been publicly mooted!” 
Hut it foreshadowed that accurate and extensive knowledge which he 
acquired in after years of the racial variations of birds, by tho care- 
ful examination of large series of specimens, from the most distant 
localities, a remarkable example of which is exhibited in the grand 
series of Falco peregrinu .»• with which he enriched our Museum. 
Mr. Gurney’s connection with the Norfolk and Norwich Museum 
commenced, as I have before mentioned, in the year 1828; and 
from that time to the close of his life he continued to be a constant 
contributor to its collections in all departments. 
In 1843, at Mr. John Scales’s sale, he bought a magnificent pair 
of Bustards for £22, but although he had by that time begun to 
collect Norfolk Birds, he generously gave them to the Museum.* 
The male bird of this pair is probably one of the finest British 
specimens known. But it was to the birds of prey that Mr 
Gurney’s attention soon became more especially directed, and it is 
probable that nineteen-twentieths of the Eaptores bear his name as 
their donor, or were obtained through his intervention. 
In these early years he was associated in the management of the 
* Cf. Trans. Norfolk and Norwich Nat. Soc. vol. iv. pp. 93 (note) — 113 . 
VOL. V. 
M 
