BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR. 
xi 
gentleman and a member of Parliament for Co. Mayo. He was one of 
the most active of the early founders of the Zoological Society, and not 
only described several interesting collections of birds, but was the author 
of a “ Classification ” which exercised considerable influence on the minds 
of ornithologists for some years afterwards. He is also celebrated as 
having been the Editor of the ‘Zoological Journal,’ and, as Swainson 
says (Bibl. Zool. pt. 2, p. 365), he “was one of the first to apply the 
circular theory to the arrangement of birds.” 
Not long after his appointment to his post at the Zoological Society 
John Gould married Miss Coxen, the daughter of a Kentish gentleman 
named Nicholas Coxen; and to this lady is due much of the ultimate 
success of her husband’s career, for she was as accomplished an artist as 
she was one of the best of wives. His marriage took place in 1829, and 
in 1832 he published his first work, the ‘ Century cf Birds from the 
Himalaya Mountains.’ Erom whom Gould got the collection has, I 
believe, never been stated. It would seem to have been formed princi¬ 
pally in the North-western Himalayas, but at least one Southern species, 
Myiophonus horsjieldn, is included on the supposition that it might 
occur also in the Himalayas. The text, however, shows that the 
collections of Sykes and Hodgson were known to Gould and Vigors. 
The descriptions of these Himalayan birds form the subject of some of 
the earliest papers in the * Proceedings ’ of the infant Zoological Society, 
and Vigors’s articles were read at the meeting on Nov. 23, 1830, 
and continued at intervals until Dec. 27, 1831. At the time of the 
first meeting in 1830 Gould is spoken of as an “ Associate ” of the 
Linnean Society, but from the title of the ‘ Century,’ published in 1832, 
he appears to have become by that time a “ Pellow ” of the Society. After 
Vigors had described the Himalayan novelties, the idea struck Gould 
that an illustrated work might be published, with figures of these 
interesting birds. Vigors would write the letterpress and Gould himself 
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