4 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



soul into the work of arranging and classifying the vast 

 number of natural history objects which were received from 

 many sources. To Mr. Young's indefatigable energy and 

 skill is due the credit of getting together the very fine collec- 

 tion of birds, British and foreign. More than this, he was a 

 very skilful taxidermist, and was able, during his long service 

 of twenty-six years, to save the Museum authorities a great 

 deal of expense. 



As Curator, Mr. Young had only one day in each week 

 in which to collect, and these days he devoted to the collec- 

 tion of the orders of insects, etc., not represented in the 

 Museum. He added a good collection of spiders ; made a 

 fine collection of fish, mounted in a style peculiarly his own. 

 He took up the various orders of insects Hymenoptera, 

 Herniptera, Diptera, Orthoptera, etc., and the seldom studied 

 branches Anoplura and Mallophaga. His name appears 

 frequently on the pages of Murray's " Catalogue of Scottish 

 Coleoptera" (1853); Fowler's " Coleoptera of the British 

 Isles" (1887-91); Edward's " Hemiptera-Homoptera of the 

 British Isles" (1896), etc.; and he also contributed to 

 numerous scientific journals. 



Mr. Young was a Fellow of the Entomological Society, 

 but his modesty was such that he seldom used the title. 



All Mr. Young's energies were expended on his beloved 

 Museum. He looked upon it as his Museum his birds, 

 his insects, his flowers. He was unmarried, but the Museum, 

 with its birds, its beasts, and its plants, and, above all, with 

 its insects, held for him some of the joys which others find 

 in the domestic circle. Like many of the older zoologists, 

 he loved the old ways and the beaten paths, and had very 

 little sympathy with modern scientific theories. With the 

 theory of evolution, for example, and its principles of develop- 

 ment and adaptation to circumstances, he had little patience. 

 The mere mention of Darwin's name to him was like waving 

 a red flag before a bull not that he did not admire Darwin, 

 but because the theory of evolution of which Darwin was the 

 author was to him heresy unpardonable. 



The meeting of kindred spirits was, perhaps, never better 

 shown than on the introduction of Thomas Edwards, the 

 Banffshire naturalist, and Mr. Young. Mr. Edwards visited 



