Photo Credit: eBird
These Australian birds are named after Elizabeth Gould, the wife of the ornithologist who first described them. Some sources call them the Lady Gouldian Finch. Elizabeth Gould was a governess before marriage and a prolific bird illustrator after. She learned lithography from her husband's friend Edward Lear. Her pictures appeared in many of her husband's bird books. When John Gould saw these birds, his wife had recently died of complications after the birth of their eighth child. (You can read more about her and see many of her illustrations here and here and here. I also really appreciated this piece, written by a descendant.) Researching John and Elizabeth Gould, and especially reading the last link, made me think of what I discovered about Eduard Rüppell for this post. Elizabeth Gould has another bird named after her, too, the Mrs. Gould's Sunbird, which lives in the Himalayas.
When
Elizabeth Gould
died at 37,
she left children,
an ornithologist husband,
piles of delicate, beautiful illustrations,
and two birds:
the Mrs. Gould's Sunbird
and the Gouldian Finch.
One drinks nectar
and one eats seeds,
and both are brightly coloured
and called Gouldiae.
©Ruth Bowen Hersey
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