70 CONSERVATOR OF SURGEONS’ MUSEUM [ch. iv. 
of the Surgeons’ Museum, while he had some years 
before resigned his appointment as Secretary to 
Professor Jamieson, and Assistant Keeper of the 
Natural History Museum, in order to be able “ to 
pursue with greater freedom his work in the fields.” 
Audubon had for several years been well known 
among the elite of Edinburgh society, was highly 
respected by them, and while his friendship was 
valued on account of his estimable social qualities, 
his art was regarded as unrivalled in its excellence, 
specimens of it occasionally being parted with by 
him for considerable sums. MacGillivray, on the 
other hand, was probably unknown as yet, except 
to the limited circle of scientific men with whom he 
had come into contact. On these, however, his 
great scientific acquirements, and his other sterling 
qualities, had, by the time of the arrangement with 
Audubon, made a decided impression, and in his 
narrower circle his real worth was coming to be 
known and recognised. 
Audubon knew much of the lives, habits, and 
external features of American birds—more than 
any other living man, as he said himself—but he 
knew nothing of their organisation, or of the 
principles of ornithological classification. Mac¬ 
Gillivray, however, knew more of British birds than 
any other man then living, having seen and observed 
so much of them in his repeated wanderings. He 
was besides more learned than any other British 
ornithologist in the anatomy of birds, while his 
views in regard to the principles of classification 
