THE SONG OF THE SANDPIPER: MEMOIR OF A SCOTTISH NATURALIST.

1999 1st edition. 8vo (160 x 240mm). Pp240. Colour and b/w photographs, colour and b/w illustrations by the author. Blue boards, gilt titles.

This is a wide-ranging and interesting autobiography. The author, J. Morton Boyd, life-scientist and one-time director of the Scottish Nature Conservancy Council was still in the process of preparing this manuscript when he died. Subsequently published by Boyd's family, the narrative coversBoyd's early life followed by travel and work in the Hebrides, St. Kilda, working for the Nature Conservancy, the Arabian desert, Petra and Wadi Rum,Uganda, the Serengeti, the Indian Ocean and elsewhere. The last two chapters deal with Boyd's work in conservation policy in the Gilbert and Ellis Islands and elsewhere in the Pacific, dealing in part with the aftermath of the Christmas Island atom bomb tests.