Shieldrake / Sheldrake - John Gould - Kingfisher - Framed Print - 11"H x 14"W
Shieldrake / Sheldrake - John Gould - Kingfisher - Framed Print - 11"H x 14"
John Gould FRS was a British ornithologist and bird artist. He published a number of monographs on birds, illustrated by plates that he produced with the assistance of his wife, Elizabeth Gould, and several other artists including Edward Lear, Henry Constantine Richter, Joseph Wolf and William Matthew Hart.
He has been considered the father of bird study in Australia. His identification of the birds now nicknamed "Darwin's finches" played a role in the inception of Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection. Gould's work is referenced in Charles Darwin's book, On the Origin of Species.
He became an expert in the art of taxidermy, this skill helped him to become the first Curator and Preserver at the museum of the Zoological Society of London
Shieldrake is an obsolote form for the Sheldrake, which has now become Shelduck.
The shelducks, genus Tadorna, are a group of large birds in the Tadorninae subfamily of the Anatidae, that includes the ducks and most duck-like waterfowl such as the geese and swans.
The shelducks are a group of larger often semi-terrestrial waterfowl, which can be seen as intermediate between geese and ducks. They were originally known as "sheldrakes", which remained the most common name until the late 19th century. The word is still sometimes used to refer to a male shelduck