BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR. 
To write the history of a man’s life when the subject of one’s pen has 
passed away, leaving behind him no private journal or memoranda of 
any kind, is not easy. In the case of John Gould it is perhaps not 
necessary to seek for such data, for his work speaks for itself and his 
books tell the story of his life. This is, I am sure, what he would 
himself have wished them to do. 
Several excellent notices of his life and labours were published in 1881 
at the time of his death, notably in 4 Nature ’ and in the 4 Zoologist;’ but 
perhaps the best and fullest account was that written by Count Salvadori 
in the ‘ Atti ’ of the Royal Academy of Science of Turin, of which 
^ould had been a Corresponding Member since 1841. This paper, en¬ 
titled “Della vita e delle opere dell’ ornitologo inglese John Gould,” was 
published in the 4 Atti ’ of the above-named Academy in 1881, and Count 
Salvadori therein gives a complete list of all the works and papers written 
by the deceased naturalist. Another excellent notice was published in 
1864 in 4 Photographic 'Portraits o* Men of Eminence,’ when Gould was 
sixty years of age, and from this memoir and the story which he himself 
tells of his work in the 44 Prefaces ” to his various publications we gain 
a history of his early life and accomplishments. I i^ve also received 
much assistance in compiling this memoir from his three daughters, 
Mrs. Moon, Miss Louisa Gould, and Miss Sai Gould, and also from my 
colleague Mr. John Cleave, of the British Museum, who is a nephew of 
the deceased naturalist. 
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