an ardent botanist, a collector of
insects and molluscs, and one of the pioneers in the anatomy of birds.
There are many curious allusions in his writings which seem to shew
that he too was beginning to doubt the fixity of species, and to guess
at the struggle for existence and survival of the fittest which the
great Darwin was the first to make a part of the knowledge of the
world. It must be confessed that his son John, the companion of
Huxley, had little of his father's ability. He was three years older
than Huxley, and broke off his medical course at the University of
Edinburgh to sail in the _Fly_. After the return of the _Rattlesnake_,
he was appointed in 1852 as naturalist to H.M.S. _Herald_, then
starting under Captain Denham for surveying work round the shores of
South America. He left that ship at Sydney, and after many years'
wandering about the southern seas, accounts of which he communicated
from time to time to Sydney newspapers, he died in 1867. He was a
zealous collector of plants and animals, but apparently cared little
for the study of his captures, either in life, in relation to their
surroundings, like Darwin, or for the structure of their bodies, like
Huxley. The somewhat unpleasing nature of his regard for animals
appears in the following story which he himself tells:

"While at dinner off Darnley Island near the Torres Straits, news
was brought that Dzum was under the stern in a canoe, shouting
out loudly for Dzoka (MacGillivray's native name), and, on going
up I found that he had brought off the barit, which after a deal
of trouble I struck a bargain for and obtained. It was a very
fine specimen of Cuscus Maculatus, quite tame and kept in a large
cage of split bamboo. Dzum seemed very unwilling to part with the
animal, and repeatedly enjoined me to take great care of it and
feed it well, which to please him I promised to do, although I
valued it merely for its skin, and was resolved to kill it for
that purpose at my first convenience."

On the other hand, MacGillivray paid great attention to native
languages, and collected vocabularies of some value. To him was
entrusted the task of writing an account of the voyage, and it is from
his rather dull pages, brightened by illustrations from Huxley's
sketches, that the incidents of the voyage are taken. The references
to Huxley in the narrative are slight, and seem to shew that no great
intimacy