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Full Description
John
Henry Gurney: A Passion for Birds
details the life of John
Henry Gurney (1819-1890) who became a successful banker when still young. His
wealth enabled him to indulge his passion for collecting natural history
specimens, especially birds. A major supporter of the fledgling Norfolk and
Norwich Museum, in 1853 he announced his intention to collect a series of every
species of bird of prey in the world, and to donate and display them in the
museum. Unfortunately, devastating events in his private and professional life
threatened to derail his efforts. Nevertheless, he persisted in his
specimen-collecting and ornithological studies and became a world-renowned
expert on birds of prey and the birds of southern Africa. Gurney named nearly
30 bird species new to science and had several species named after him. He made
significant and long-lasting contributions to bird identification and knowledge
of the distribution of many species. But why did he choose to collect and study
birds of prey in particular; how closely did he approach his goal and how much
did it cost him? This book attempts to answer these questions.
