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( 169 ) the "Life of William Macgillivray."

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( 169 ) the ( 169 ) THE "LIFE OF WILLIAM MACGILLIVRAY."* ALTHOUGH William MacGillivray (1796-1852), the great Scotch naturalist and author of the History of British Birds (1837-1852), died nearly sixty years ago (in the autumn of 1852), the first published account of his life in book form has but recently appeared. This work can, however, hardly be said to have added much of interest or importance to the somewhat scanty amount of information which was already available regarding MacGillivray's life and writings. The authors of the " Life " have divided their book into three parts. The first dealing with MacGillivray's life ; the second consisting of a " scientific appreciation " of his work ; and the third containing extracts from his published writings " descriptive of Bird Life, of Personal Adventure for Scientific Investigation, of Picturesque Scenes, etc." The few observations which follow must refer to the first and certainly the most important portion of the book ; that containing the " scientific appreciation " deals with little of interest that could not have been included in the " Life," while the extracts, thirty-five in number, consisting of one from his Descriptions of the Rapacious Birds of Great Britain, p. 223 (1836)—the reference to which has been omitted—twenty-three from the History of British Birds, and the remainder from the Natural History of Deeside (1855), savour somewhat of the nature of " padding." Mr. William MacGillivray, namesake of the naturalist and author of the first part of the work, had already printed for private circulation a Memorial Tribute to William MacGillivray in 1901, in connection with the erec­ tion of memorials to the great ornithologist in Edinburgh and Aberdeen. Much of the information in the " Memorial Tribute" is incorporated in the volume now under review, and Mr. MacGillivray has also had access to two of the journals kept by the naturalist, which will be presently referred to. Although the " Life " by no means supplies the details which the many admirers of MacGillivray had hoped for, it must * Life of / William MacGillivray, / M.A., LL.D., F.R.S.E.; Ornitho­ logist ; professor of / natural history, Marischal College and / University, Aberdeen / by William MacGillivray, W.S, / author of " Bob Lindsay and his school" etc. / with a scientific appreciation / by / Arthur Thomson / Begius professor of natural history, Aberdeen University / with illustrations / " in the eye of Nature he has lived " / London / John Murray, Albemarle Street, W. / 1910. 1 Vol. 8vo. pp. x + pp. 222 + 12 plates —10s. 6d. net. 170 BRITISH BIRDS. be at once frankly acknowledged that the omission is not altogether the fault of the author. As he tells us in his " Introductory Chapter " :— " No detailed biography of Professor MacGillivray has ever been written, and the materials for such do not no w exist. From an early period he kept careful journals of his life and work, and from these a biography of great interest and value could have been compiled ; but unfor­ tunately all but two volumes were accidentally destroyed by fire in Australia many years ago. I recently discovered that two volumes in MacQ-illivray"s neat and careful handwriting remained in the possession of the family of the late Dr. Paul MacGillivray, an eminent surgeon in Australia, son of the Professor ; and having been allowed the privilege of perusing them, I found them to be of great interest and importance, and I shall make use of them freely in the following narrative." This narrative Mr. MacGillivray has divided into five succes­ sive periods, which together cover the fifty-six years of the naturalist's life. These consist of (1) his boyhood in Harris ; (2) his life at Aberdeen University, 1808-1820, his study of medicine, and his final abandonment of that branch of learning for the fascinations of natural science ; (3) his residence in Edinburgh from 1820-1831 ; (4) his work as Conservator of the Museum of the Edinburgh College of Surgeons from 1831-1841, the period which embraces the " grand climacteric " of his intellectual life and includes his acquaintanceship with Audubon and the publication of the first three volumes of the History of British Birds [1837-1839-1840]; and (5) the final period, which comprises his professorship of Natural History in Marischal College, Aberdeen, the completion of the History of British Birds in 1852, and his death in that same year. The interest of MacGillivray's career may be said to commence with the second of the above periods, and as the journals already mentioned were written in 1818 and 1819 they belong to this portion of his life. They are respectively entitled " Journal of a Year's Residence and Travels in The Hebrides, by William MacGillivray, from 3rd August, 1817, to 13th August, 1818, Vol. 1," and "Notes taken in the Course of a Journey from Aberdeen to London, by Braemar ... in 1819 by William MacGillivray." Interesting as the journals undoubtedly are, and graphic as is the description they afford us of the struggles and hard­ ships of the naturalist's early life, it is a disappointment to find that they contain—so far as the extracts given enable us to judge—practically no ornithological references of any kind :* a singular omission on MacGillivray's part, since he tells us that the main object of his journeys was " to extend my * Except three of small importance on p. 31. THE GREAT AUK. (From a drawing by MacGillivray in the British Museum). Reproduced by permission from the Life of William, MacGillivray. A REDUCED FACSIMILE OF MACGILLIVRAY'S HANDWRITING. (From a letter lent by Mr. Ruthven Deane, Chicago, through Mr. J. A. Harvie-Brown, Dunipace). Reproduced by permission from the Life of William MacGiUivray. "LIFE OF WILLIAM MACGILLIVRAY." 173 knowledge in natural history, especially in ornithology and botany, which can only be done by travelling," and a still stranger omission on the part of Mr. MacGillivray if any such references exist and have not been recorded. Two extracts, however, are given which are of great interest, as they refer to the production of the naturalist's " great work," as he rightly termed it, viz., the History of British Birds. The first, which is under date 1818, shows that he was then already contemplating the subject, for he writes :—" I have not yet seen an account of the birds of Britain with which I am entirely satisfied, and I have of late been thinking upon the subject." And in the second, written in 1819, on the comple­ tion of his arduous journey on foot from Aberdeen to London— during which he subsisted chiefly on bread and water, travelling at one time a distance of 240 miles on an expenditure of twelve shillings—he records the following notes when visiting the collection of birds at the British Museum :—" I do not altogether agree with modern ornithologists, and possibly I may become some day the author of a new system." The story of MacGillivray's life on his return from London and his residence in Edinburgh, 1820-1831, has already been described by the naturalist in the preface to his Rapacious Birds of Or eat Britain, and as Mr. MacGillivray has nothing of importance to add we may pass on to the years which comprise his associa­ tion with the American naturalist, John James Audubon, and the production of the first three volumes of the History of British Birds. MacGillivray's share in the authorship of Audubon's Ornitho­ logical Biographies is now well known, and Mr. MacGillivray duly chronicles the meeting of these two great men in 1830. The following is Audubon's own account of this episode— extracted from his journals in The Life and Adventures of John James Audubon, by Robert Buchanan, 1868:—" I applied to Mr. James Wilson, to ask if he knew of any person who would undertake to correct my ungrammatical manuscripts, and to assist me in arranging the more scientific part of the ' Biography of the Birds.' He gave me a card with the address of Mr. MacGillivray, spoke well of him and his talents, and away to Mr. MacGillivray I went. He had long known of me as a naturalist. I made known my business, and a bargain was soon struck. He agreed to assist me, and correct my manuscripts . and 1 that day began to write the first volume." This meeting led to a warm friendship between the two men, and amongst the many projects discussed by them was 174 BRITISH BIRDS. that of a book on British birds. On May 7th, 1831, MacGillivray thus writes to Audubon:—"As I understood youi proposals respecting the Birds of Britain to have ended in nothing, and as you do not allude to the subject, I shall suppose all our ideas to have dispersed, and shall think of the matter myself " [The Auk, Vol. XVIII., p. 241] ; and writing again in 1834 he says:—"Now that your American birds are completed I suppose you will have at the European or the British. In the latter case what will become of mine ? However, I have resolved, God willing, to go through with my task. I have at least 20 drawings superior to anything in the way ever seen by me, excepting always ' The Birds of America,' and so good that one might look at them without disgust even after seeing yours" [Tom. cit., p. 245]; and in 1836 he tells Mrs. Audubon in a letter that " I have on hand just now a work on British Birds on a larger scale than that of the Rapacious species . there will be several plates representing the digestive organs and a few skeletons, with a multitude of woodcuts, and I expect the first volume to be out by the middle of March at the latest " [Tom.
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