low] 
BRITISH ORNITHOLOGY 
361 
Collation — 1 vol. sm. 8vo. Title in woodcut border + pp. iv 
un. + pp. 90 un. + pp. 519. Pt. 2, title + pp. 152. 
At pp. 131-84 “ Ornithologia, of Birds.” 
Low (Rev. George), 1746-95 
George Low was born, in 1746, in the parish of Edzell in 
Forfarshire. He was educated at the Colleges of Aberdeen 
and St. Andrews, and later became tutor in the family of 
Graham of Stromness, in the Orkneys. While here he made 
the acquaintance of Sir J oseph Banks and Dr. Solander, when 
these two eminent men touched at the islands on their return 
from that ill-fated voyage in which Captain Cook fell. Mr. 
Low’s devotion to natural history attracted the notice of 
the visitors, and at their request he accompanied them in 
their excursions through the Orkneys and Shetland Islands. 
On December 14, 1774, Low was ordained minister of Birsay 
and Haray, in Pomona, or the mainland of Orkney. This 
charge he held till his death. In 1775 he married, and his 
wife dying in the following year, he sought consolation in 
the eager pursuit and study of natural history. By Sir 
Joseph Banks, Low was introduced to Pennant, and by 
Pennant he was engaged to draw up a u Fauna Orcadensis ” 
(cf. Advertisement to Leach’s edition of Fauna Orcadensis , 
1813). He also had in preparation for the press A Tour 
through the Islands of Orkney and Shetland. Low died in 
1795. In 1812 the MS. of the Fauna Orcadensis , which had 
been revised by Pennant, passed into the possession of Dr. 
W. E. Leach, who published it with the remark that “ Mr. 
Low’s merits as a laborious and accurate observer of Nature, 
were, it is believed, scarcely known beyond the narrow 
circle of his particular friends ; and it is to be regretted that a 
recent historian (the Rev. George Barry, D.D., in his History 
of Orkney, 4to, 1805) has not scrupled to avail himself of the 
advantages which this obscurity offered to a plagiary.” 
1795. [Birds of] Birsay and Haray Parish, Orkney [In Sir John Sinclair’s 
Statist . Acct. of Scotland, xiv. p. 317]. 8vo. Edinb. 1795. 
1813. Fauna Orcadensis : | or, | The Natural History | of the | Quadru- 
peds, Birds, Reptiles, and Fishes, | of | Orkney and Shetland. | 
