James (Jim) David Macdonald, a Corresponding Fellow of the AOU since 1949, died peacefully in Brisbane, Australia, on 17 September 2002, at the age of 93. With his death we lost one of the professional ornithologists with a classical museum background and an advocate of their traditional roles in society. He is survived by Dr. Betty Macdonald, his wife for 64 years.
Jim was born near Inverness, Scotland, on 3 October 1908, and grew up in the Scottish highlands, developing his love of nature and skill of painting. Winning bursaries and scholarships, Jim chose to pursue natural science. At the University of Aberdeen he obtained his BS in forestry in 1930 and in biology in 1932. His earliest research was on decapod crustaceans with the Scottish Fishery Board.
When appointed to the British Museum (Natural History) in 1935 he was placed in the Bird Room, where he started as Assistant Keeper and retired in 1968 as Senior Scientific Officer in charge of the Bird Room and Deputy Keeper of the Zoology Department. Apart from war service with the British Admiralty, his entire career was dedicated to traditional museum ornithology. He ran collecting expeditions to South Sudan in 1938–1939 and South West Africa in 1950–1951, each substantially enhancing African collections in the Museum; that led to publication of a comprehensive report on the birds of the region. He also restored the bird gallery of the Museum with attractive displays, following war damage. He served on the Council and as a Vice-President of the British Ornithologists’ Union, and was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the Linnean Society of London, the Zoological Society of London, and the Institute of Biology.
His professional career culminated in a series of expeditions to Australia sponsored mostly by Major Harold Hall, an Australian philanthropist. That was the last systematic collecting of Australian birds by an overseas institute, collecting in all parts of the continent and enriching the British Museum collection of Australian birds by some 6,500 specimens (skins, skeletons, and fluid). The leader of the first expedition in 1962–1963, Jim’s party discovered a new species of bird (Hall’s Babbler) in Queensland. In that expedition, his wife Betty accompanied him as doctor and caterer for the team. They liked the outdoor life in Australia, so they settled in Brisbane upon his retirement. Jim became the inaugural president of the new Queensland Ornithological Society in 1969, led the Society in its formative years, and was elected an Honorary Life Member. He also produced the first handbook of Australian birds (Birds of Australia: A Summary of Information, with a chapter on the origin of Australian birds by Dom Serventy and illustrations by Peter Slater) in time for the 16th International Ornithological Congress held in Canberra in 1974. His efforts to popularize bird study are seen in the publication of Bird Biology (1959), Bird Behavior (coauthored by D. Goodwin and H. E. Adler, 1962), Bird for Beginners: How Birds Live and Behave (1980), and The Illustrated Dictionary of Australian Birds by Common Names (1987).
Jim never lost the modesty and quiet passion cultivated in his native country. His gracious appreciation of Australian generosity expressed through dour looks was seldom recognized. Queensland Ornithological Society (Birds Queensland) is planning the publication of a special issue of its journal Sunbird to commemorate his contributions to Australian ornithology.
