Home > William MacGillivray

MacGillivray was born in Aberdeen and brought up on the island of Harris. He returned to Aberdeen where he studied medicine at King’s College. In 1823 he became assistant to the Professor of Natural History at Edinburgh University. He was Curator of the museum of the Royal Society of Surgeons in Edinburgh from 1831, and Professor of Natural History at Marischal College, Aberdeen from 1841. He died in Aberdeen and was buried in Edinburgh’s New Calton cemetery.

MacGillivray was a friend of John James Audubon, and wrote large part of Audubon’s Ornithological Biographies from 1830-1839. His own works include A Biography of Alexander von Humboldt (1833), Lives of eminent zoologists from Aristotle to Linnaeus (1834), A Systematic Arrangement of British Plants (1835), A History of British Quadrupeds (1838), A manual of botanyBotany is the scientific study of plants. As a branch of biology, it is also sometimes referred to as plant science(s or plant biology . Botany covers a wide range of scientific disciplines that study the growth, reproduction, metabolism, development, dis, comprising vegetable anatomy and physiology (1840), A History of the MolluscousCaudofoveata Aplacophora Polyplacophora Chitons Monoplacophora Bivalvia Bivalves Scaphopoda Tusk shells Gastropoda Snails and Slugs Cephalopoda Squids, Octopuses, etc. The mollusks or molluscs are the large and diverse phylum Mollusca which includes a var Animals of Aberdeen, Banff and KincardineKincardine can refer to: Kincardineshire, a traditional county of Scotland Kincardine, Ontario, a municipality in Ontario, Canada. (1843), A Manual of British OrnithologyOrnithology is the branch of biology concerned with the scientific study of birds. It includes observations on the structure and classification of birds, and on their habits, song and flight. Regional associations and societies Europe United Kingdom West (1840 – 1842), and A History of British BirdFor other meanings of bird see bird (disambiguation). Many see text Birds are bipedal, warm-blooded, egg-laying vertebrates characterized primarily by feathers, forelimbs modified as wings, and hollow bones. There are almost 9000 known species of birds ins, indigenous and migratory, in five volumes (1837-1852). His Natural History of Deeside and BraemarBraemar is a village in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, around 50 miles west of Aberdeen, being closest significantly-sized settlement to the upper course of the River Dee. (1855) was published posthumously.

Audubon named MacGillivray's Warbler for him.