When Gilbert arrived in Sydney on 30 April, he found his employer gone. To rub salt in his wound, his trunk had been ransacked and many of the possessions that Gould had promised to protect, had been stolen. Gilbert had provided Gould with thousands of specimens of every description, from quadrupeds to insects, from shells to crustacea, from plants to reptiles, but mainly and most importantly, birds and eggs. He had provided Gould with over 60 new species of birds, including the extinct paradise parrot which he first discovered in the Darling Downs in June 1844.