William MacGillivray FRSE MWS (25 January 1796 – 4 September 1852) was a Scottish

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 naturalist

Natural history

Natural history is the scientific research of plants or animals, leaning more towards observational rather than experimental methods of study, and encompasses more research published in magazines than in academic journals. Grouped among the natural sciences, natural history is the systematic study...

 and ornithologist.

MacGillivray was born in Old Aberdeen

Old Aberdeen

Old Aberdeen is part of the city of Aberdeen in Scotland. Old Aberdeen was originally a separate burgh, which was erected into a burgh of barony on 26 December 1489. It was incorporated into adjacent Aberdeen by Act of Parliament in 1891...

 and brought up on the island of Harris. He returned to Aberdeen where he attended King's College

King's College, Aberdeen

King's College in Old Aberdeen, Scotland is a formerly independent university founded in 1495 and an integral part of the University of Aberdeen...

, graduating MA in 1815. He studied medicine, but did not complete the course. In 1823 he became assistant to Robert Jameson

Robert Jameson

thumb|Robert JamesonProfessor Robert Jameson, FRS FRSE was a Scottish naturalist and mineralogist.As Regius Professor at the University of Edinburgh for fifty years, Jameson is notable for his advanced scholarship in natural history, his superb museum collection, and for his tuition of Charles...

, the Regius Professor

Regius Professor

Regius Professorships are "royal" professorships at the ancient universities of the United Kingdom and Ireland - namely Oxford, Cambridge, St Andrews, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Dublin. Each of the chairs was created by a monarch, and each appointment, save those at Dublin, is approved by the...

 of Natural History at the University of Edinburgh

University of Edinburgh

The University of Edinburgh, founded in 1583, is a public research university located in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The university is deeply embedded in the fabric of the city, with many of the buildings in the historic Old Town belonging to the university...

. He was curator of the museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh

Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh

The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh is an organisation dedicated to the pursuit of excellence and advancement in surgical practice, through its interest in education, training and examinations, its liaison with external medical bodies and representation of the modern surgical workforce...

 from 1831, resigning in 1841 to become Professor of Natural History at Marischal College

Marischal College

Marischal College is a building and former university in the centre of the city of Aberdeen in north-east Scotland. The building is owned by the University of Aberdeen and used for ceremonial events...

, Aberdeen. He died in Aberdeen and was buried in Edinburgh's New Calton cemetery.

MacGillivray was a friend of American bird expert John James Audubon

John James Audubon

John James Audubon was a French-American ornithologist, naturalist, and painter. He was notable for his expansive studies to document all types of American birds and for his detailed illustrations that depicted the birds in their natural habitats...

, and wrote a large part of Audubon's Ornithological Biographies from 1830-1839. Audubon named MacGillivray's Warbler

MacGillivray's Warbler

The MacGillivray's Warbler, Oporornis tolmiei, is a small species of New World warbler. Like all members of the genus Oporornis, these birds are sluggish and heavy warblers with short tails, preferring to spend most of their time on, or near the ground, except when singing.The MacGillivray's...

 for him.

MacGillivray's eldest son, John MacGillivray

John MacGillivray

John MacGillivray was a Scottish-naturalist, active in Australia between 1842 and 1867.MacGillivray was born in Aberdeen, the son of ornithologist William MacGillivray. He took part in three of the Royal Navy's surveying voyages in the Pacific...

 (1822-1867), published an account of the voyage round the world of HMS Rattlesnake

HMS Rattlesnake (1822)

HMS Rattlesnake was an Atholl-class 28-gun sixth-rate corvette of the Royal Navy launched in 1822. She made a historic voyage of discovery to the Cape York and Torres Strait areas of northern Australia.-Construction:...

, on board of which he was naturalist. Another son, Paul

Paul MacGillivray

Paul MacGillivray , a scientist and medical practitioner by occupation, was born at Edinburgh, to William MacGillivray and Marion née Askill, and was the brother of John MacGillivray, who became a noted naturalist.- Early life :...

, published an Aberdeen Flora in 1853. He donated 214 of his father's paintings to the Natural History Museum

Natural History Museum

The Natural History Museum is one of three large museums on Exhibition Road, South Kensington, London, England . Its main frontage is on Cromwell Road...

.

Legacy

A detailed version of MacGillivray's life was written by another William MacGillivray, which book was published 49 years after the ornithologist MacGillvray's death. The book details the life of the ornithologist. MacGillivray is noted for his keen insights in species distinctions; for example, in his works he made a clear distinction between the Hooded Crow

Hooded Crow

The Hooded Crow is a Eurasian bird species in the crow genus. Widely distributed, it is also known locally as Scotch Crow, Danish Crow, and Corbie or Grey Crow in Ireland, which is what its Welsh name, Brân Lwyd, translates as...

 and Carrion Crow

Carrion Crow

The Carrion Crow is a member of the passerine order of birds and the crow family which is native to western Europe and eastern Asia.-Taxonomy:...

, which distinction was muddled for the next one and a half centuries. Then in 2002, his insights were vindicated by DNA

DNA

Deoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms . The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in...

 research and the Hooded Crow

Hooded Crow

The Hooded Crow is a Eurasian bird species in the crow genus. Widely distributed, it is also known locally as Scotch Crow, Danish Crow, and Corbie or Grey Crow in Ireland, which is what its Welsh name, Brân Lwyd, translates as...

 was awarded species status.

Works

His 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

He also illustrated Henry Witham

Henry Witham

Henry T M Witham was the first English person to investigate the internal structure of fossil plants, and was a founder member of the Royal Geological Society....

's 1833 The Internal Structure of Fossil Vegetables found in the Carboniferous and Oolitic deposits of Great Britain. The Conchologist's Text-Book was edited by him through several editions.