170 BRITISH BIRDS. 



be at once frankly acknowledged that the omission is not 

 altogether the fault of the author. As he tells us in liis 

 " Introductory Chapter " :: — 



" No detailed biography of Professor MacGillivray has ever been 

 written, and the materials for such do not no wexist. From an early period 

 he kept careful journals of his life and work, and from these a biography 

 of great interest and value could have been compiled ; but unfor- 

 tunately all but two volumes were accidentally destroyed by fire in 

 Australia many years ago. I recently discovered that two volumes 

 in MacGillivray's neat and careful handwriting remained in the 

 possession of the family of the late Dr. Paul MacGillivray, an eminent 

 siu-geon in Australia, son of the Professor ; and having been allowed 

 the iirivilege of perusing them, I found them to be of great interest and 

 importance, and I shall make use of them freely in the following 

 narrative." 



This narrative Mr. MacGillivray has divided mto five succes- 

 sive periods, which together cover the fifty-six years of the 

 naturalist's life. These consist of (1) his boyhood in Harris ; 

 (2) his life at Aberdeen University, 1808-1820, his study of 

 medicine, and his final abandonment of that branch of learning 

 for the fascinations of natural science ; (3) his residence in 

 Edinburgh from 1820-1831 ; (4) his work as Conservator of 

 the Museum of the Edinburgh College of Surgeons from 

 1831-1841, the period which embraces the " grand climacteric " 

 of his intellectual life and includes his acquaintanceship with 

 Audubon and the publication of the first three volumes of 

 the History of British Birds [1837-1839-1840] ; and (5) the final 

 period, which comprises his professorship of Natural History 

 in Marischal College, Aberdeen, the completion of the History 

 of British Birds in 1852, and his death in that same year. 



The interest of MacGillivray's career may be said to 

 commence with the second of the above periods, and as the 

 journals already mentioned were written in 1818 and 1819 

 they belong to this portion of his life. They are respectively 

 entitled " Journal of a Year's Residence and Travels in 

 The Hebrides, by William MacGillivray, from 3rd August, 

 1817, to 13th August, 1818, Vol. 1," and "Notes taken in 

 the Course of a Journey from Aberdeen to London, by 

 Braemar . . . in 1819 by William MacGillivray." 



Interesting as the journals undoubtedly are, and graphic 

 as is the description they afford us of the struggles and hard- 

 ships of the naturalist's early life, it is a disappointment 

 to find that they contain — so far as the extracts given enable 

 us to judge— practically no ornithological references of any 

 kind :* a singular omission on MacGillivray's part, since he tells 

 us that the main object of his journeys was " to extend my 



♦Except three of small importance on p. 31. 



