16 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE 



four years of age and she seventeen), the necessity for 

 some settled income must have become urgent. He 

 therefore returned to Edinburgh, where he obtained the 

 position of assistant and secretary to Professor Jamieson, 

 under whom he undertook the charge of the Natural 

 History JNIuseum there. Here he found abundant 

 opportunity for continuing his study of natural history, 

 and especially his favourite branch of it, ornithology, 

 with the aid of the collection of specimens in the 

 Museum, and subjects which came into his hands for 

 dissection, or which he himself collected in the course 

 of his excursions around Edinburgh and elsewhere. 



He occupied this position for several years, but 

 desiring to have more leisure, as he explains in the 

 preface to his book on Rapacious Birds, for prosecut- 

 ing his investigations in the field, he resigned it, and 

 resumed his wanderings, extending these more widely 

 than before, mainly for the purpose of enlarging his 

 knowledge of the habits and lives of his feathered 

 favourites — supporting himself and his family, as he 

 says, by his "labours in the closet." What those closet 

 labours consisted of we have no precise information, 

 but they were no doubt principally of the nature of 

 contributions connected with natural history to scientific 

 periodicals, compilations, and other miscellaneous liter- 

 ary work. 



