256 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



William MacGillivray, like many other great men, was not 

 sufficiently appreciated during his lifetime. No biography has yet 

 appeared till the present one, and his tomb long remained uninscribed 

 with his name, whilst his monumental work, "The History of British 

 Birds," received only a mediocre welcome. Seeing all these things, it 

 is very fit that the life of William MacGillivray should now appear, and 

 we have to thank his venerable, highly esteemed namesake for giving 

 us such a delightful and ably written little biography of one of our 

 ablest British ornithologists. 



Professor MacGillivray was a naturalist in the truest sense of the 

 word, one who loved to study animal life both in the fields and in 

 the laboratory : he was a field naturalist as well as a master of 

 anatomy, being equally at home in the museum or on the moor. 

 His magnum opus was "The History of British Birds," written with such 

 delightful enthusiasm; thework treats of all our native birds, and affords 

 practical lessons in their various structural peculiarities. The reader 

 is taken on many an ornithological ramble, in which all the birds 

 observed are fully discussed, imaginary questions being asked by the 

 pupil and answered by the professor. The work was absolutely 

 original and the work of a master, consequently it is a book which 

 will always live and maintain its pristine freshness, though at the date 

 of publication it received but scanty appreciation. 



MacGillivray's life was a strenuous one, and full of incident; con- 

 sequently the biography is full of interesting matter, whilst it gives a 

 detailed course of his life. 



Both the biographer and Professor Thomson have performed 

 their labour of love in a manner worthy of all praise, and we cordially 

 recommend this delightful volume to all naturalists. It contains many 

 illustrations which are reproductions of MacGillivray's drawings of 

 birds, the originals of which are now in the British Museum. A 

 further point to notice is the excellence of the paper and the 

 consequent lightness of the volume in the hand. If one may be 

 allowed to criticise, might one point out that the eminent 

 ornithologist alluded to on p. 137 as having been in the mind of 

 the late Professor Newton was assuredly John Wolley, not H. M. 

 Turner. W. E. C. and G. E. G.-M. 



INSECT WONDERLAND. By Constance M. Foot. With 

 illustrations. London : Methuen & Co. Price 33. 6d. net. 



This is a charming little volume, containing ten sketches, in 

 story form and simple language, intended to convey to the youthful 

 reader some elementary facts concerning the structure, habits, and 

 life-history of some of our commoner insects. Some of the stories 

 have been read aloud by us to a child under five years of age, to the 

 undoubted enjoyment of the listener. Told like fairy tales, these 

 little chapters are admirably adapted for the instruction of boys and 

 girls who show a taste for natural history. 



