WILLIAM

See also:

• WILLIAM MACGILLIVRAY (1796-1852)

MACGILLIVRAY (1796-1852)  , Scottish naturalist, was born at Aberdeen on the 25th of January 1796 . At King's College, Aberdeen, he graduated in 1815, and also studied medicine, but did not complete the latter course . In 1823 he became assistant to R . Jameson, professor of natural history in Edinburgh University; and in 1831 he, was appointed curator of the museum of the Royal College of Surgeons in Edinburgh, a post which he resigned in 1841 to become professor of natural history and lecturer on botany in Marischal College, Aberdeen . He died at Aberdeen on the 4th of September 1852 . He possessed a wide and comprehensive knowledge of natural science, gained no less from personal observations in different parts of Scotland than from a study of collections and books . His industry and extensive knowledge are amply shown in his published works . He assisted J . J . Audubon in his classical works on the Birds of America, and edited W . Withering's British Plants . His larger works include biographies of A. von Humboldt, and of zoologists from Aristotle to Linnaeus, a History of British Quadrupeds, a History of the Molluscous Animals of Aberdeen, Banff and Kincardine, a Manual of British Ornithology, and a History of British Birds, in 5 vols .

(1837–1852) . The last

work holds a high rank from the excellent descriptions of the structure, habits and haunts of birds, and from the use in classification of characters afforded by their anatomical structure . His Natural History of Deeside, posthumously published by command of Queen Victoria, was the result of a sojourn in the highlands of Aberdeenshire in 185o . He made large collections, alike for the instruction of his students and to illustrate the zoology, botany and geology of the parts of Scotland examined by him, especially around Aberdeen, and a number of his original water-colour drawings are preserved in the British Museum (Natural History) . His eldest son, JOHN MACGILLIVRAY (1822-1867), published an account of the voyage round the world of H.M.S . " Rattlesnake," on board of which he was naturalist . Another son, PAUL, published an Aberdeen Flora in 1853 .