OBITUARY. 19 



observations, one day he would be found wandering amidst the 

 splendid scenery of Lakeland, interrogating the dalesmen on 

 points in the history and traditions of the wild things around ; 

 the next lying hidden along shore, glasses and book and pencil 

 before him, watching and noting the actions of the waders and 

 wildfowl as they were moved along the great sand-banks by the 

 swift flowing tide of Solway ; or, maybe, on one of the native 

 whammle boats going down the firth on the ebb, ever amassing 

 the knowledge which, in many hundreds of articles and para- 

 graphs, he contributed so profusely to these and other pages. 



The same industry with which he carried on his general work 

 characterized his correspondence. Letters of three or four sheets 

 and post-cards followed each other in such rapid succession, that 

 any conscientious correspondent not gifted with the like en- 

 thusiasm had difficulty in making due acknowledgment. Tele- 

 grams, too, came at times when anything he thought important 

 cropped up. We remember with pleasure how, seated at break- 

 fast one May morning in 1888, a "wire" was laid before us, which 

 read as follows : — " Pallas's Sand Grouse have arrived in numbers. 

 Look out for them. Tell everybody. Macpherson." The state 

 of suppressed excitement under which our friend laboured in 

 making such an announcement can well be imagined by those 

 who knew him. 



His keenness of disposition and Celtic fervour of tempera- 

 ment occasionally led him into impatience with fellow-workers, 

 and it has to be said that, now and again, some little disagree- 

 ments resulted where more phlegmatic individuals would never 

 have noticed any incompatibility. But no permanent estrange- 

 ments ever resulted. Macpherson was always first to heal any 

 breaches thus made. 



His first work of importance was the volume on the ' Birds 

 of Cumberland' (1886), prepared in collaboration with Mr. Win, 

 Duckworth. Next followed the ' Visitation of Pallas's Sand 

 Grouse to Scotland in 1888' (1889). Three volumes of the 

 ' Young Collector Series' — " Fishes," " Mammals," and a " Hand- 

 book of British Birds" — were undertaken and issued in 1891. 

 The last named, although certainly of rather limited dimensions, 

 is really a capital little manual, and ought to be more widely 

 known than it is. In 1892 came his magnum opus, ' The Verte- 



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