William MacGillivray

William MacGillivray's grave, New Calton Cemetery

Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use British English William MacGillivray FRSE (25 January 1796 – 4 September 1852) was a Scottish naturalist and ornithologist.

Life and work

107 High Street, Old Aberdeen

MacGillivray was born in Old Aberdeen and brought up on Harris. He returned to Aberdeen where he studied Medicine at King's College, graduating MA in 1815.<ref name="Waterston">Template:Cite book</ref> In Old Aberdeen he lived at 107 High Street.<ref>Plaque in Old Aberdeen High Street</ref>

He then became an assistant Dissector in the Anatomy classes. In 1823 he became assistant to Robert Jameson, the Regius Professor of Natural History at the University of Edinburgh. He was curator of the museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh from 1831, resigning in 1841 to become Regius Professor of Natural History at Marischal College, Aberdeen.

MacGillivray was a friend of American bird expert John James Audubon, and wrote a large part of Audubon's Ornithological Biographies from 1830 to 1839. Audubon named MacGillivray's warbler for him.

He died at 67 Crown Street<ref>Aberdeen Post Office Directory 1852</ref> in Aberdeen on 5 September 1852 but is buried in New Calton Cemetery in Edinburgh.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The grave faces east onto the eastern path.

Family

In 1820 he married Marion Askill from Harris.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The couple had 10 children, two of whom died in infancy.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Two of MacGillivray's sons achieved recognition as naturalists. His eldest son, John MacGillivray (1822–1867), published an account of the voyage round the world of HMS Rattlesnake, to which he was the onboard naturalist. Another son, Paul, published an Aberdeen Flora in 1853, and donated 214 of his father's paintings to the Natural History Museum.

Legacy

A detailed version of MacGillivray's life, written by a namesake, was published 49 years after the ornithologist's death.<ref>MacGillivray , William. A Memorial Tribute to William MacGillivray. Privately published, 1901.</ref>

MacGillivray correctly distinguished between the hooded crow and carrion crow, but they were considered only to be subspecies for the next one and a half centuries until, in 2002, on DNA evidence, the hooded crow was awarded species status.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Works

MacGillivray's works include:

• Lives of Eminent Zoologists from Aristotle to Linnaeus (1830)
• A Systematic Arrangement of British Plants (1830)
• The Travels and Researches of Alexander von Humboldt. (1832)
• A History of British Quadrupeds (1838)
• A Manual of Botany, Comprising Vegetable Anatomy and Physiology (1840)
• A History of the Molluscous Animals of Aberdeen, Banff and Kincardine (1843)
• A Manual of British Ornithology (1840–1842)
• A History of British Birds, indigenous and migratory, in five volumes (1837–1852)
• Natural History of Deeside and Braemar (1855), published posthumously
• A Hebridean Naturalist's Journal 1817-1818 (1996), published posthumously
• A Walk to London (1998), published posthumously

MacGillivray illustrated Henry Witham's 1833 The Internal Structure of Fossil Vegetables found in the Carboniferous and Oolitic deposits of Great Britain, and edited The Conchologist's Text-Book through several editions. Template:Clear Template:Botanist

See also

• Thomas Bewick
• William Yarrell

External links

• Template:Cite EB1911
• Biography at Natural History Museum
• MacGillivray art collection at Natural History Museum
• C. Michael Hogan (2009). Hooded Crow: Corvus cornix, GlobalTwitcher.com, ed, N. Stromberg
• William MacGillivray (1901). A memorial tribute to William MacGillivray, ornithologist, Edinburgh
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• Template:Internet Archive author
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• De Avibus Historiae: MacGillivray by Alberto Masi Template:Webarchive