On the bicentennial of his death, this beautifully illustrated volume pays tribute to the Scot who became the father of American ornithology. Alexander Wilson made unique contributions to ecology and animal behavior. His drawings of birds in realistic poses in their natural habitat inspired Audubon, Spencer Fullerton Baird, and other naturalists.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1876.

This engrossing and entertaining scientific history includes the story of Glasgow's 'Big Bang' of 1863, the controversy over 'Astronomer Royal for Scotland' and a historical survey of the eight observatories that once populated Glasgow.

Whether male or female, loyalist or radical, urban or rural, literati or autodidacts, Scottish Lowland poets in the age of Burns adamantly refuse to imagine a single British nation. Instead, they pose the question of "Scotland" as a revolutionary category, always subject to creative destruction and reformation.