BIRDS OF DUMFRIESSHIRE 
any special knowledge of ornithology sufficient to 
validate his statement. He was an acknowledged 
botanist, and the Rev. John Lightfoot in his Flora 
Scotica writes of him thus: "To the Rev. Dr. 
Burgess, of Kirkmichael, in Dumfriesshire, I am 
eminently indebted for the botany of the Lowlands. 
Unsolicited and without reserve, he was ready to 
impart all the botanical discoveries he had made 
during the course of many years. To him I am like- 
wise obliged for the provincial names of plants, or 
those made use of by the common people of the 
country."* Robert Riddell, of Glenriddell, says 
of him : " This clergyman was considered as one of the 
first Botanists in Scotland by Linnaeus, and I have 
seen letters from Linnaeus to Dr. Burgess in the 
highest degree flattering to him."t 
BusHNAN, Dr. John Stevenson, b. ? 1808. M.D. Heidel- 
berg ; qualified as a practitioner in Edinburgh, 1830. 
At one time surgeon in Dumfries. A writer on 
medical subjects, he edited in London The Medical 
Times and Gazette, 1849-1852. He wrote in 
1834, An Introduction to the Study of Nature, and 
in 1840, Ichthyology. Fishes, Particularly their 
Structure and Economical Uses. (vol. ii., Jardme's 
Naturalists' Library). He also contributed 
ornithological notes (some of them local) to the 
Edinburgh Journal of Natural History. Dr. Bushnan 
was an F.R.S.E. and F.L.S., and a correspondent 
of Sir William Jardine. His latter days were 
blighted by misfortune, and his sight failing, he 
became a "poor brother" of the Charter House, 
where he died on February 17th, 1884. 
Carruthers, William Thomas, of Dormont (Dalton), and 
Arthington Hall, Yorkshire, b. January 31st, 1799. 
He was of an artistic and poetical temperament. 
He formed a large collection of British birds, which 
cannot now be traced. Specimens of a locally 
* Flora Scotica, 1777, Vol. I., p. xiii. 
t Robert Riddell's MS. Notes to Stat. Acct. Scot. 
