4 THE SCOTTISH NATURALIST 



of the Chair of Botany began to engage all his energies, that 

 botanical studies should have swamped his zoological output ; 

 but even so he still retained a warm interest in zoological 

 progress, and continued his keen observation of the fauna 

 of Aberdeenshire and the neighbouring counties. When the 

 writer last saw him, full of his old energy, in the summer of 

 1919, he was enthusiastic over a fossil recently discovered 

 in the ancient chert beds at Rhynie, which he was certain 

 would prove to be the mandibles of an unknown and long 

 extinct insect. 



It must not be supposed that Professor Trail's contri- 

 butions to zoology were only of a local nature, though he 

 naturally paid most attention to the neighbourhood of 

 Aberdeen, which he knew best. Wherever he travelled his 

 observation was alert, and his records of bird-names and 

 bird occurrences in his native Orkney, of Lepidoptera and 

 land snails in Sutherland, and of plant galls in Norway are 

 only a few illustrations of that meticulous attention to all 

 natural phenomena which was one of his most striking 

 characteristics. Yet his zoological papers, accurate and 

 detailed as they are, never reached that phase of comparison 

 and deduction which marked some of his later botanical 

 work, and added to it a living human interest. 



But when all is said and done Trail's influence on Scottish 

 zoology does not rest alone on his contributions to the science. 

 For forty-three years he instilled into successive generations 

 of students a regard for accuracy and a love of truth which 

 has borne and is bearing rich fruit. He spared no pains in 

 encouraging and helping a willing worker, and while he 

 demanded enthusiasm (and a foodless ramble from 8 A.M. 

 till 4 P.M. requires enthusiasm) he rewarded enthusiasm by 

 a confidence which converted the outwardly austere teacher 

 into a friend. Nor did he forget a practical stimulus to 

 study and research, for in 1902 he endowed a Nicol prize 

 in Zoology and a Dickie prize in Botany in the University 

 of Aberdeen " for the purpose of encouraging students to 

 undertake research in the fauna and flora of Scotland " ; and 

 in 1907 he founded the Helen Scott Fund of ;^iooo, for the 

 benefit of students, distinguished in botany or zoology, who 



