PREFATORY NOTE 



The sketch of Professor MacGillivray's life and work 

 wliich follows was at first written in the form, and with 

 the brevity, of an article intended for a newspaper in 

 connection with the movement, then begun, for the 

 promotion of a JNIemorial of him ; but it was not so 

 used, and was retained, altered, and added to from 

 time to time, the result partly of suggestions from 

 friends, most of them former pupils of the Professor, 

 and partly of information which came to me from 

 different sources at odd times. It is in no sense 

 a " Life " of my eminent namesake — for such a work I 

 am not competent — but merely an appreciative sketch 

 in which I have tried to record, and to some extent 

 illustrate, my own conception of his special pre-emi- 

 nence as an ornithologist, and my warm admiration of 

 his high qualities of mind and character, as these come 

 out so prominently in connection with his life's work 

 in the different spheres in Avhich his lot had been 

 successively cast. 



W. MACGILLIVRAY. 



4 Rothesay Place, 

 Edinburgh, I5th May 19OI. 



