SOME EARLY BRITISH ORNITHOLOGISTS. 395 



with merit must be crushed, and crushed it was in a speedy 

 and most effective manner. The word went forth that 

 Macgilhvray's work was " choked with anatomical 

 details." The half-truth repelled the public, the " History 

 of British Birds " was doomed to oblivion and the chamber- 

 naturahsts returned to their discussions in triumph. 

 That they had incidentally broken the heart of the greatest 

 ornithologist this country has ever possessed, that they 

 had nearly prevented the completion of one of the greatest 

 books on British birds, was to them of course, not a 

 matter of the least importance. 



Fortunate indeed it is that at the present day all this 

 is changed, and that the " chamber-naturalist " is now 

 as able in the field as in the museum. 



From this combination of adverse circumstances 

 Macgilhvray's work has never completely recovered, 

 and probably never will. Although the cop3n:ight has 

 long expired and it now commands a price in the auction 

 rooms which places it beyond the reach of many who 

 would gladly possess it, yet the fact remains that in these 

 days of constant re-issues and new editions of ornithological 

 books, many of which are more or less worthless, Mac- 

 gillivray's great work has never been reprinted and brought 

 up to date. 



No adequate account of the life and work of William 

 Macgillivray has yet been published ; some knowledge 

 of his character and career can however be derived from 

 a privately printed book, written by a namesake of the 

 great ornithologist, and entitled " A Memorial Tribute 

 to William Macgillivray" (Edinburgh, 1901, 1 vol., 4to). 

 The preface to Macgillivray 's " Rapacious Birds of Great 

 Britain " and that to the fourth volume of his " British 

 Birds " may also be consulted to advantage. 



WilHam Macgillivray was born in Old Aberdeen in 1796. 

 He left Aberdeen when a child of three, and lived with his 

 two uncles in the island of Harris — his father, who was 

 an army surgeon, being absent with his regiment — till 

 he was eleven years of age, when he returned to Aberdeen to 



