[Victorian Web Home —> Science —> Ornithologists —> John Gould —> Next]
Garrulus Bispecularis
Artist: Elizabeth Gould
Printed by: Charles Hullmandel
1831
"Drawn from nature & on stone"
Source: Gould, plate 38
John Gould married Elizabeth Coxen, the daughter of a taxidermist, in 1829. He would give his "infinitely tolerant and accommodating" wife the roughest of sketches, from which she would produce the drawing — which he then corrected in minute detail (see Tree 28-29). [Commentary continues below.]
Image acquisition and text by Jacqueline Banerjee.
You may reproduce the image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you credit the source. It would be good to link your document to this URL or refer to the Victorian Web in a print document.
Gould had been elected to the recently founded Zoological Society in 1827, and it was this first work, a collaborative production prompted by the Society's acquisition in 1830 of a "collection of bird skins from the Himalayas" (qtd. in Tree 29), that made his name as an ornithologist.
The illustrations were of the utmost importance. Gould tells the Scottish naturalist Sir William Jardine (1800-1874) that they represent his wife's "very first attempt at stone drawing" (qtd. in Tree 30). There are none of the atmospheric, if sometimes fanciful natural settings that accompanied the later plates. Nevertheless, the birds have their characteristic poses, and Gould's guiding hand has ensured that they come to life on the page.
As for the the commentaries, Gould knew that he himself still lacked "the scientific standing to identify, name, and classify the birds" with the requisite "scientific rigour" (Russell 14). To provide the texts, he therefore called upon the highly respected Irish natural historian and MP Nicholas Aylward Vigors (1785-1840), one of those who had helped to found the Zoological Society in the first place. As Gould said in the "Advertisement" at the beginning of the book:
Among the many who claim his thanks, the Author feels himself indebted in an especial manner to N. A. Vigors, Esq. M.P., for whose kindness on this and all occasions he returns his warmest acknowledgements. By that gentleman the originals of these illustrations were laid before the Scientific Meetings of the Zoological Society; and by him not only the nomenclature, but also the accompanying letter-press descriptions were liberally contributed.
Nevertheless, the "descriptions" are not unduly learned and a delight to read. There is often a personal note: here, Vgors is interested in the likeness of this species to our native Jay. His own enthusiasm is immediately clear:
This beautiful species of Jay, which exhibits all the typical characters of the genus, is exclusively confined, so far as our researches have hitherto extended, to the wooded line of the Himalayan chain. Its habits and manners are those of its race, of which our well-known British Jay is a familiar example. One of the greatest ornaments in the truly beautiful plumage of the Jays, is the barred speculum in the wing, where alternate stripes of light blue and black produce a chaste yet rich effect. In the present bird, this speculum is double; but the rest of the plumage is more uniform than in our native bird, consisting of a deep fawn colour covering the crest, head and back, becoming a little lighter over the whole of the under surface; a black band stretches downwards from the base of the beak, covering the cheeks and sides of the neck; on each shoulder is a speculum of alternate bars of blue and black; the greater coverts are jet black; the quills are black, slightly edged with grey; and a second speculum occupies a considerable portion of the secondaries, barred with broader stripes of blue and black, the blue passing off to white abruptly edged by the line of black; the upper tail-coverts are white; the tail and bill are black; the tarsi flesh colour. The Plate represents the bird of its natural size.
The production of the plates, indeed of the whole collection, had shown Gould to be a canny businessman. However, Vigors had taken too long to produce his text: "Never again would Gould allow himself to be compromised by someone else's work" (Tree 32).
Gould, John. A Century of Birds from the Himalaya Mountains. London: Gould, 1831. Internet Archive. Contributed by Smithsonian Libraries. Web. 6 April 2019.
Russell, Roslyn. The Business of Nature: John Gould and Australia. Canberra: National Library of Australia. 2011.
Tree, Isabella. The Ruling Passion of John Gould. New York: Grove Weidenfeld, 1991.
Created 6 April 2019; last modified 8 September 2023