bafkie] 
BRITISH ORNITHOLOGY 
35 
A Study of the Home-Life of the Osprey. (Brit. Birds, pp. 17-22, 
40-43.) 
Some Observations on the Breeding Habits of the Red-necked 
Phalarope. (T.c. pp. 202-7.) 
Some Bird Notes from the Outer Hebrides during the month 
spent there, May-June, 1907. 2 pts. (Ann. Scott. Nat. Hist., 
1907, pp. 208-15 ; 1908, pp. 22-30, pi. II.) 
On the “ drumming ” of the Snipes. (Bull. B.O.C. xix. pp. 
72-3.) Idem. (P.Z.S., 1907, p. 12 ; Bond. Hosp. Gaz., Oct. 
1905.) 
1908. On the Development of the Young Cuckoo. (Brit. Birds, i. pp. 
361-66.) 
On the Nesting of the Scaup Duck in Scotland. (Op. cit. ii. 
pp. 209-17.) 
1909. On the supposed “ colour change ” and the spring moult of the 
Black-headed Gull. (Op. cit. iii. pp. 105-11.) 
Baikie (William Balfour), 1825-64 
Baikie was born at Kirkwall, Orkney, on August 27, 1825, 
and the Historia Naturalis Orcadensis — still a standard book, 
although only one part of it appeared — was the work of his 
youth. He entered the medical service, took his degree of 
M.I). at Edinburgh, and became surgeon to the Niger 
Expedition of 1854. He wrote Narrative of an Exploring 
Voyage up the Rivers Kwo’ra and Bi’nue {commonly known 
as the Niger and Isadda) in 1854, (8vo, London: 1854). He 
appears to have been a botanist also, for he collected a 
number of Niger plants, which are preserved at Kew. Hooker 
named the plant Stephanophysum haikiei after him. 
It was while a young man at Kirkwall in 1846 that he and 
Heddle together with Mr. W. Beid, a bookseller in the town, 
succeeded in forming an Antiquarian and Natural History 
Society, which received a considerable measure of support 
from people in the islands, a museum being opened with 
Keid as secretary and custodian ; but it was dispersed by 
auction after Baikie and Heddle left the country (c/. Buckley 
and Harvie-Brown, Vertebrate Fauna of the Orkney Islands, 
intro, p. xxiii, 1891). 
He died at Sierra Leone in November or December 1864. 
A monument to him was erected in Kirkwall Cathedral. 
