Excerpt from Nests and Eggs of Australian Birds: Including the Geographical Distribution of the Species and Popular Observations Thereon Biographical Memoir by Dr. R. Bowdler Sharpe in his Analytical Index to the works of the great author. John Gould was born at Lyme, in Dorsetshire, England, 14th Sep tember, 1804, and, when quite an infant, his parents went to live at Stoke Hill, near Guildford and it was in this beautiful neighbourhood that the child first imbibed his notions of the beauty of natural life. When young Gould-was 14 years of age, his father received a good appointment in the Royal Gardens at Windsor, where the boy assisted him in gardening. By this time he had begun the study of birds, and made his first acquaintance with many British species in the royal domains. He was also reported to be a good taxidermist. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.