300 Reviews. V.^l^f^n. 



different parts of Dumfries-shire. To ornithologists in the British 

 Isles, the book, which is a model of what such a work should be, 

 must prove indispensable, Each species occurring in the Solway 

 area is dealt with exhaustively, and the introductory chapters 

 furnish general details regarding physical features of the district, 

 climate, &c. The illustrations are numerous, and good, save those 

 which depict stuffed birds, and of this class there are more than 

 could be desired. But this is a slight blemish on a valuable work. 

 Writing of the Common SsiX^d'pi^tr {Totanus hypoleucns),\hQ. SiUihov 

 says that the birds arrive at their nesting-haunts about the third 

 week in April, leaving late in July or early in August, and "after 

 a brief sojourn of a week or two on the coast, depart to their 

 more southerly winter quarters." He mentions the fact that the 

 species, in winter, is found in Australia, as far south as Tasmania. 



["Life of William MacGillivray, by Wm. MacGillivray, W.S. With a Scientific 

 Appreciation by J. Arthur Thomson. London : John Murray. Price, los. 6d. net.] 



To write the life of such a man as William MacGillivray — the 

 "accurate MacGillivray," as Darwin called him — a sympathetic 

 pen was needed, and the great British ornithologist has been 

 fortunate in his biographer. The little volume under notice 

 sketches the boyhood and career of MacGillivray, and the 

 scientific value of his work is brought out in Prof Thompson's 

 lucid " appreciation." 



The future historian of British birds was born at Old Aber- 

 deen in 1796, his father being a surgeon in the army, and when 

 three years of age he was taken to live on a farm on the island of 

 Harris, where he received his early education and commenced 

 to look on nature with delight. In a poem he himself says, 

 " The solitudes of nature were my school." When only twelve 

 years old he entered Aberdeen College, and, taking his M.A. 

 degree, began the study of medicine. In 18 16 he commenced 

 the study of botany, and subsequently devoted attention to 

 ornithology, geology, and other branches of natural history. 

 In fact, he at one period or other of his life took all nature for 

 his province, but ornithology became his favourite study, and 

 he will be remembered by his " History of British Birds." He 

 was an open-air naturalist, religious, and with a strain of poetry 

 in his nature, but he was also a scientist. " MacGillivray," says 

 Prof. Thomson, " must be given a very high place, for three 

 reasons : — (i) Because of his classification, which got below the 

 often misleading resemblances in superficial appearance and 

 habits to the affinities indicated by anatomical architecture ; 

 (2) because of the pattern of thoroughness which he set in his 

 anatomical investigations ; (3) because of the excellence of his. 

 observations on the life and habits of birds." The late Prof. 

 Alfred Newton wrote of MacGillivray : — "Among ornithologists 



