ACCURACY OF WORKMANSHIP 
129 
the 600 odd ants and flies and beetles in the green 
woodpecker’s stomach; to peer into a thousand and 
one little details of this sort, which make his studies 
of Birds and of Mammals so realistic and interest¬ 
ing. He was, indeed, far removed from the 
impressionist type of natural history. 
“The Accurate MacGtllivray.” 
Emotional Celt that he was, MacGillivray had a 
highly developed sense of precision, and well- 
deserved Darwin’s epithet with which we have 
headed this paragraph. What was characteristic 
of his inherited mental framework was doubtless 
developed by not having many books or teachers 
to lean on, when he was training himself, and by 
his prolonged discipline in dissection, drawing, and 
museum-work. Even the neat labelling was 
symptomatic of “the accurate MacGillivray.” 
Professor James W. H. Trail, in referring to 
the work he did many years ago in the Natural 
History Museum of Aberdeen University, writes as 
follows:— 
“During my work I had occasion to become 
well acquainted with Professor MacGillivray’s 
collections preserved in the Museum. The neatness 
of his writing and methods were conspicuous in 
all his work; but admiration of this was soon 
followed by respect and honour as I came to know 
more fully the width and accuracy of his work. 
From his collections I turned to his writings, to find 
only still stronger reason for wonder that he could 
have found opportunity to write so much, and on so 
i 
