SKETCH OF LIFE AND WORK 27 



tions of the birds of Great Britain, more extended, and 

 if possible more correct, than any previously offered ; " 

 and in the preface to the Rapacious Birds he says: 

 " Ornithology can be successfully prosecuted only by 

 examining the internal structure, the external form, the 

 actions and habits, the distribution and the various 

 relations of the objects to which it refers ; " adding, " all 

 arrangements of birds hitherto published are merely 

 artificial, inasmuch as in their details reference is had 

 only to one or a few sets of organs." He further says 

 he had not written without full preparation, having been 

 at work for twenty years accumulating facts by his own 

 observations in many fields, by numerous communica- 

 tions with other observers, by examination of many 

 specimens, in museums and in his own possession, 

 derived from various parts of the world, and by dissec- 

 tion of such birds as were available to him. 



The publication of the History of British Birds 

 formed the commencement of a new era in ornithology, 

 and the result was to revolutionise to a great extent 

 that branch of natural science. It was in accordance 

 with the principles indicated in the above quotations 

 that the book was written, and its value from a scientific 

 point of view consists in its having been so. This work 

 had the effect at the time of raising its author to the 

 highest position in Britain as an ornithologist. In a 

 subsequent part of this memorial volume several ex- 

 tracts from MacGillivray's works are given, in which 

 he fully explains and vindicates the principles on 

 which his system of classification, entirely differing 



