344 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



of all the specialists in these volumes. Enough, however, has 

 surely been noticed to prove the importance to zoologists of the 

 results of this somewhat short but important expedition. 



Life of William Macgillivray. By William Macgillivray, with 

 a scientific appreciation by Prof. J. Arthur Thomson. 

 John Murray. 



It is well that we should know more of the life of this de- 

 voted ornithologist, well described by Darwin as " the accurate 

 Macgillivray," and the first half of the volume which is devoted 

 to biographical details gives us all the principal events com- 

 prised in a busy life, even if it does not present the personal 

 characteristics that lift a biography into a human document. 

 We can, however, glean much of the man himself in the narra- 

 tive of his work; his could have been no nebulous personality 

 to have drawn to his lectures so fine a judge of style and matter 

 in other fields as the late Prof. Blackie. Besides attempting to 

 found a permanent classification of birds on structural charac- 

 ters, he anticipated our modern bird-watchers. " Much of his 

 holiday time was spent in watching, by night as well as by day, 

 the habits of birds, and he often concealed himself for many 

 hours continuously, now in some cave or rocky recess by the 

 shore, from which the variety of swimming birds could be most 

 readily seen, and again in some temporary shelter erected on 

 the higher cliffs, from which the Eagle, the Osprey, the Piaven, 

 and other predatory birds could be closely observed." His walk 

 from Aberdeen to London in order to see the British Museum 

 and other kindred institutions is a narrative of Scottish frugality 

 and endurance adorned by natural reflections and appreciations 

 of events and scenery which come not to every pedestrian. 



Besides being an ornithologist, Prof. Thomson, in his appre- 

 ciation, acutely points out that Macgillivray was one of that 

 now almost extinct type — the all-round naturalist — that he was 

 a well-equipped geologist, botanist, and zoologist, and that " he 

 taught all the three sciences with conspicuous success." These 

 qualities must have made him appreciate the wide intellectual 

 purview of Alexander von Humboldt, whose published travels and 

 researches he condensed, a memorable classic, containing some 



