50 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE 



It is difficult now to realise what Professor Mac- 

 Gillivray's loss to natural science then was felt to be 

 — the loss of " the most eminent ornithologist in 

 Europe," as he has been truly designated. The loss, 

 too, of a man who was so devout, so generous, so self- 

 denying, so warm-hearted, so painstaking, so energetic, 

 and so conscientious in the discharge of duty and in 

 the carrying out of any purpose to which he felt he 

 had a call — who can tell what that was except those 

 who had the privilege of personal relationship with him 

 as scientists or as friends, or as members of his own 

 bereaved family ! 



He had thirteen children, several of whom died in 

 infancy or childhood. His two sons, John and Paul, 

 became eminent in natural science. John was naturalist 

 on three scientific exploring expeditions sent out by 

 the Government, viz. (1) that of the Fly, commanded 

 by Captain Blackwood, to Torres Straits and the 

 Eastern Archipelago, to which he was appointed in 

 1842, when he was only eighteen years of age, and from 

 which he returned in 1846 ; (2) in the end of the same 

 year the Rattlesnake expedition, under Captain Owen 

 Stanley (Professor Huxley, then an assistant surgeon in 

 the Royal Navy, being also of the staff) ; and on his return 

 from that expedition in 1850 he wrote an account of it, 

 which was published in 1852 ; and (3) later in that year 

 he was appointed to the Herald expedition to the 

 coasts of South America and the South Pacific, under 

 Captain Denholm. He, however, left the Herald on 

 its arrival at Sydney in 1855, and thereafter devoted 



