PREPARATIONS IN MUSEUM ARRANGED 75 
his work for Audubon, and especially to the great 
number of American birds examined, dissected, and 
described by him for the Ornithological Biographies. 
He refers over and over again in his History to 
important information received from Audubon, 
while he quotes freely from descriptions by him 
of American birds and their habits. 
On the publication of his Rapacious Birds, his 
“first work,” he dedicates it to Audubon, “in 
admiration of his talents as an ornithologist and 
in gratitude for many acts of friendship.” 
The ten years during which he occupied the 
position of Conservator, his duties to the Museum 
were discharged with the most conscientious care, 
and with perfect scientific skill and intelligence. 
His first year’s work was especially arduous and 
laborious, and it severely tested both his physical 
and his mental powers. When he entered on his 
duties on 17th September 1831, the numerous 
preparations belonging to the College were partly 
in the old museum in Surgeon Square and partly 
in two other separate buildings; while their 
condition and arrangement were far from satis¬ 
factory. The present handsome building was just 
then being completed from designs by Mr Playfair, 
and the responsibility of the removal of the contents 
of the old buildings to the new one devolved on 
MacGillivray. He found the preparations in a 
very unsatisfactory condition — many of them 
having been badly prepared, badly put up, and 
badly arranged, while almost all were far from 
