November 24, 19 10] 



NATURE 



107 



has-been done during the last decade. I suggest that a 

 public discussion, such as. that on "The Origin of Verte- 

 brate?," held at the Liiinean Society last session, would 

 be valuable. The Reviewer. 



In our work in Challenger Office in connection with 

 deep-sea deposits, we are very much impressed with the 

 fact that solution of calcium carbonate is going on in the 

 ocean, not only at great depths, but at all depths from 

 the surface to the bottom wherever dead organisms which 

 secrete carbonate of lime are exposed to the action of the 

 sea water, as was recognised and insisted on by Semper, 

 Murray, Agassiz, and others. We are therefore much 

 interested in the discussion going on in Nature regarding 

 solution in the lagoons of atolls. 



Mr. Wood-Jones considers that there are no actual proofs 

 of solution in the lagoons of atolls, but, at the same time, 

 admits the deposition of calcium carbonate. 



The quantity of calcium carbonate present in solution 

 in normal sea water is very small — only 012 gram per 

 litre for water of specific gravity 1026 — and no precipitate 

 is obtained on allowing it to stand for any length of time. 

 When, however, sea water has remained for some period 

 in contact with calcium carbonate it may take up a greater 

 amount (up to 0-649 gram per litre). The solution is then 

 supersaturated, and, on being allowed to stand, calcium 

 carbonate is deposited in the crystalline form, and the 

 deposition may go on until the solution contains less 

 than is normally present in sea water. 



The first condition, therefore, for precipitation is that 

 more calcium carbonate than is normally present should 

 pass into solution, and this can only occur when the sea 

 water is in contact with a calcareous deposit for some 

 time. 



Would Mr. Wood-Jones say where the calcium carbonate 

 which is precipitated in the crystalline form in the inter- 

 stices of the massive corals in the lagoons comes from, for 

 it is certainly not from the normal sea water which 

 reaches the reefs from the open ocean ? 



It would appear that Mr. Wood-Jones's arguments 

 against Sir John Murray's theory go rather in support 

 of it. Madge W. Drlmmond. 



Challenger Office, Villa Medusa, Boswell Road, 

 Edinburgh, November 17. 



The Plight of Birds against the Wind. 



In an interesting article (Nature, November 10) upon 

 bird migration and Mr. Power's recently published 

 " Ornithological Notes," Sir T, Digby Pigott expresses 

 surprise at the latter 's conclusions that in the large 

 autumnal migrations the birds invariably fly " almost 

 directly against the wind even when it approaches a stiff 

 breeze." 



My observations on the flight of gulls during south-west 

 gales off this coast lead to the conclusion that these birds 

 during their aerial gyrations either face the wind or fly 

 obliquely across the current. They very rarely fly, and, I 

 believe, never soar, with the wind behind them. Perhaps 

 less muscular energy is necessary in the former than in 

 the latter case. Fish in rapid rivers, when not actively 

 moving, according to my e.xperience remain with their 

 heads upstream. W. Ainslie Hollis. 



Hove, November 15. 



lUE ACCURATE MACGILLIVRAY, 

 ORNITHOLOGISTS 



"T^HE accurate MacGillivray " is Darwin's designa- 

 *■ tion of the subject of this notice, and "ornith- 

 ologist " is the title which, when twentv-three years of 

 age, he himself presaging his own powers, declared 

 i* would go hard with him if he did not merit. 



Who MacGillivray was does not require to be told 

 to the ornithologist conversant with the literature of 



1 " Ufe of William MacGillivTay, M.A.. LL.D., F.R.S.E., Ornithologist 

 ^rofe^sor of Natural History-, Marischal College and University, Aberdeen. 

 By William MacGillivray, W.S. With a Scientific Appreciation byPnf. 

 J. Arthur Thomson. Pp. xv+2»2. (London : John Murray, iqio.) Price 

 loi. 6rf. net. 



NO. 2143, VOL. 85] 



his subject ; but the general reader and the superficial 

 bird-man have probably never heard his name. Yet 

 that he was " the greatest and most original ornith- 

 ological genius save one . . that this island has pro- 

 duced," is the verdict of so distinguished an ornith- 

 ologist of our day as Newton. Why MacGillivray's 

 biography should have tarried until his ashes had been 

 fifty-eight years in the tomb is hard to understand, 

 except probably that, born before his time, his con- 

 temporaries failed to perceive the genius of the man, 

 or realise the pioneer he was. .. 



William MacGillivray, born in Aberdeen in 1796, 

 was the son of a military- surgeon who died on the 

 field of Corunna. The storj- of his self-denying life is 

 that of not a few Scottish students, who, scantily 

 provided with means, have yet bv their indomitable 

 will-power and love of learning achieved distinction, 

 honour, and lasting fame. The future ornithologist's 

 boyhood, from the age of three, was spent in Harris, 

 in the Hebrides, where nature is wild and presents 

 herself in many changing and impressive aspects. In 

 the parish school a few miles from his home, he 

 obtained, "under dull scholastic rule," a good elemen- 

 tary education, but his chief and unconscious pre- 

 ceptors were " the solitudes of nature " and " the 

 moaning voice of streams and winds." At the age 

 of eleven he <-et out for Aberdeen, to prepare, under 

 more advanced tutors, for his entrance the following 

 year into the University there, with a view to his 

 father's profession. He probably on this occasion, as 

 he invariably did at the beginning and end of the 

 various college sessions, walked all the way athwart 

 Scotland from his landing place on the west coast. 

 When twelve years old he entered King's College, at 

 that time the University of old Aberdeen (as then 

 known), which (until i8i6o) was distinct from Mari- 

 schal College, the University' (junior bv a centur\-) of 

 new Aberdeen. Having graduated M.A., when four 

 years older, he proceeded at once to the study of 

 medicine, of which one of the courses was botany, and 

 with it, as he has recorded, he first began the studv 

 of nature "which has been particularly fascinating." 

 .\ year later he took up zoology. His vacations were 

 thenceforth spent in pedestrian excursions over the 

 Highlands an/i islands, collecting plants and animals, 

 keenly observing and carefully recording every aspect 

 of nature. 



It was during this period that MacGillivray acquired 

 his great dexterity with the scalpel, and became so 

 accomplished an anatomist that he was appointed 

 dissector to the lecturer on anatomy in Marischal 

 College. Unable, however, to resist the call 

 of natural history, he relinquished this not un- 

 congenial post in order to devote himself exclusively 

 to his mistress. .\s one of the means to " further his 

 cognition of these things," he set out on foot from 

 -Aberdeen for London via Fortwilliam and Ben Nevis 

 — hardlv the direct route — to visit the British and 

 other Metropolitan museums, and observe life by the 

 w-ay. Drenched or dry, tired or otherwise, he never 

 neglected at the close of the day to record fully in 

 his journal the valuable notes he had made. After an- 

 837 mile tramp, full of extraordinary experiences, he 

 reached the caoital, "satisfied." as he says, "with my 

 conduct"; and not unjustly so, for his expedition had 

 gone far to mature the youthful enthusiast. His study 

 of the various zoological collections in London con- 

 vinced him that the methods of classification of 

 modern ornithologists were such as he could not 

 accept. Before he returned to Aberdeen he had formed 

 the resolve "to become the author of a new system," 

 which formed the aim of his life thenceforward. In 

 i8iq or 1820, MacGillivray migrated from Aberdeen 

 to Edinburgh, and as he had recently married, it 



