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John Gould (September 14, 1804 - February 3, 1881), was an English ornithologist.
Gould was born in Lyme Regis, Dorset, the son of a gardener. Shortly afterwards his father obtained a position on an estate near Guildford, Surrey, and then in 1818 became foreman in the Royal Gardens of Windsor. The young Gould started training as a gardener, and it was here that he became an expert in the art of taxidermy. In 1824 he set himself up in business in London as a taxidermist, and his skill led to him becoming the first Curator and Preserver at the museum of the Zoological Society of London in 1827.
Gould's position brought him into contact with the country's leading naturalists, and also meant that he was often the first to see new collections of birds given to the Society. In 1830 a collection of birds arrived from the Himalayas, many not previously described. Gould published these birds in A Century of Birds from the Himalayas (1830-32). The text was by Nicholas Aylward Vigors and the illustrations were lithographed by Gould's wife Elizabeth. This work was followed by four more in the next seven years, with the text written by Gould himself, edited by his clerk Edwin Prince. Some of the illustrations were provided by Edward Lear.
In 1838 the Goulds sailed to Australia intending to study the birds of that country and be the first to produce a major work on the subject. They took with them the collector John Gilbert. They arrived in Tasmania in September, making the acquaintance of the governor Sir John Franklin and his wife. Gould and Gilbert collected on the island. In February 1839 Gould sailed to Sydney, leaving his pregnant wife with the Franklins. He travelled to his brother-in-law's station at Yarrundi, spending his time searching for bowerbirds in the Liverpool Range. In April he returned to Tasmania for the birth of his son. In May he sailed to Adelaide to meet Charles Sturt, who was preparing to lead an expedition to the Murray River. Gould collected in the Mount Lofty range and the Murray Scrubs, returning again to Hobart in July. He then travelled with his wife to Yarrundi. They returned home to England in May 1840.
The result of the trip was The Birds of Australia (1840-48) - see selected digitised images from the published work (http://nla.gov.au/nla.aus-f4773). It included a total of 600 plates in seven volumes, 328 of which were new to science and named by Gould. He also published A Monograph of the Macropodidae, or Family of Kangaroos (1841-2) and The Mammals of Australia (1849-61) - see selected digitised images from the published work (http://nla.gov.au/nla.aus-f10032).
See also: Digitised album held by the National Library of Australia (http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic-an6803903)
After his wife's death in 1841 Gould's books used illustrations by a number of artists, including Henry Constantine Richter and Joseph Wolf.
Throughout his professional life Gould had a strong interest in hummingbirds. He accumulated a collection of 320 species, which he exhibited at the Great Exhibition of 1851. Despite his interest Gould have never seen a live hummingbird. In May 1857 he travelled to the United States with his second son Charles. He arrived in New York too early in the season to see hummingbirds in that city, but on May 21 in Bartram's Gardens in Philadelphia he finally saw his first live bird, a Ruby-throated Hummingbird. He then continued to Washington D.C. where he saw large numbers in the gardens of the Capitol. Gould attempted to return to England with live specimens, but not being aware of the conditions necessary to keep them they only lived for two months at most. Gould published his Monograph of Trochilidae in 1861.
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