SKETCH OF LIFE AND WORK 9 



aspects of nature, both animate and inanimate, in which 

 he was himself specially interested, dwelling much on 

 the evidence of creative power and design, >vliich he 

 found everywhere in nature. He also spent much lime 

 in watching by night as well as by day the lives and 

 habits of birds, often concealing himself for many hours 

 continuously, now in some cave or rocky recess from 

 which the endless varieties of swimming birds ccuild be 

 most readily seen, and again in some temporary shelter 

 erected by himself on the higher cliffs, from which the 

 eagle, the osprey, the raven, and others could be closely 

 observed. 



He made many excursions, whenever opportunity 

 occurred, with his congenial friend, William Craigie, 

 " zealously striving," as he says in the preface to his 

 Rapacious Birds of Great Britain, "to add to our 

 common store of knowledge both in zoology and 

 botany. Many pleasant and successful excursions we 

 made together in quest of plants and animals on the 

 romantic braes of the Don, the pebbly shores of the 

 Dee, the rocks of the Cove, the sands of the seashore 

 and the bleak moors of the interior." 



The fascination of their pursuits, he tells us, was 

 such that after studying medicine for nearly five years 

 — officiating part of the time as dissector to the 

 lecturer on anatomy at IMarischal College — he resolved 

 to relinquish it, and to devote himself exclusively to 

 natural history. Under many difficulties he persevered, 

 wandering far and wide over most parts of Scotland, 

 and exploring "the desolate isles of the West," as he 



