120 
A SCIENTIFIC APPRECIATION [ch. vi. 
The modern student—victim of his times—is 
apt to develop the vicious habit of cerebrating 
only in the presence of print; the boy who came 
from Harris to King’s College more than a hundred 
years ago had the habit of thinking in the open 
air . Professor Trail writes of him :—“ During the 
vacations, and, when possible, during the sessions 
also, he took every opportunity to watch the life of 
birds and other animals in their natural surround¬ 
ings, and to seek out and study plants, minerals, and 
rocks, from the sea coasts to the wildest recesses 
of the mountains. In his writings there are many 
passages that tell of the delight shared, whenever 
possible, with his close friend, William Craigie. An 
artist in words, as well as with pencil and brush, 
he depicts most vividly the fascination of such 
pursuits, and of the scenes into which they led 
him ; and scarcely less evident in him is the long¬ 
ing to aid others to acquire the pleasures that meant 
so much to himself.” This is well set forth in the 
biographical sketch, but we wish to emphasise the 
fact that, keen dissector as he was, MacGillivray 
was at his best in the field. 
Professor Patrick Geddes has well said that 
“ Nature-Study is the culture of the habit of 
observing and thinking for one’s self, and at one’s 
best, without books or helps, in presence of the 
facts, and in the open air,” and we believe that 
MacGillivray came near the height of the naturalist’s 
calling in the direction of this definition. In the 
preface to the first volume of British Birds he 
