CHAPTER III 
THE EDINBURGH PERIOD FROM 1820 TO 1881 
The third period embraces the eleven or twelve 
years of MacGillivray’s first residence in Edinburgh. 
This residence, however, was not quite con¬ 
tinuous, as he writes in the preface to his Rapacious 
Birds that, after hearing Professor Jamieson’s 
lectures, 
“I then took myself to the outer Hebrides, 
where I hammered at the gneiss rocks, gathered 
gulls’ eggs and shot plovers and pigeons until, 
finding the trade dull, I returned to the civilised 
part of the country. I now became Assistant and 
Secretary to the learned Professor of Natural 
History in the University of Edinburgh, under 
whom I took charge of an extensive and beautiful 
museum, in which I found occasional opportunities 
of making myself in some degree acquainted with 
objects which I might not otherwise have been able 
to examine. The late Mr Wilson, janitor of the 
university, who dealt extensively in birds, also 
allowed me to examine the specimens that passed 
through his hands.” 
By this time, however, he had more than him¬ 
self to support, as on 20tli September 1820, before 
