John Henry Gurney

Peter Mundy, Clive Slater, Raymond Williams

John Henry Gurney
Format
Hardback
Publisher
John Beaufoy Publishing Ltd
Country
United Kingdom
Published
10 April 2025
Pages
472
ISBN
9781913679743

John Henry Gurney

Peter Mundy, Clive Slater, Raymond Williams

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.

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