LIBRARY 

 W 



The Annals 



of 





Scottish Natural History 



No. 79] 1911 [JULY 



IN MEMORIAM : ROBERT SERVICE. 



BY the death of Robert Service, the " Annals of Scottish 

 Natural History " loses one of its most valued contributors. 

 It will always be regretted that he did not live long enough 

 to publish a Fauna of the Solway Area, a district with 

 which he was so intimately acquainted. His published notes 

 on the subject testify to his knowledge, not only of its 

 Ornithology, but of its Zoology generally, gained by personal 

 observations in the field. He was rightly regarded as the 

 local authority on Natural History and Botanical matters, 

 and as such was the friend and correspondent of authorities 

 like Professor Alfred Newton, William Lennon, Rev. H. A. 

 Macpherson, Howard Saunders, Major Barrett Hamilton, 

 Professor G. F. Scott-Elliot, W. Eagle-Clarke, J. A. Harvie- 

 Brown, W. Evans, and many others. His generosity in giving 

 specimens to those who would appreciate them was wide- 

 spread, and the Royal Scottish Museum, Edinburgh, contains 

 many of his donations ; of which, perhaps, the Whiskered 

 Tern, shot near Dumfries in 1894, is the most prized. 



Robert Service was born on 23rd May 1854, at 

 Netherplace near Mauchline, Ayrshire. His father, four 

 years after his birth, set up as a nurseryman at Greenbrae, 

 near Dumfries, and Robert received his education at the Old 

 Free Kirk School, Maxwelltown. After completing his 

 education there, he joined his father in the business which he 

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