BIOGRAPHICAL. XXX1xX 
done partly in this country and partly in Canada. 
He was uncle to the late John George Moodie- 
Heddle of Cletts, South Ronaldshay, who died a few 
years ago, and brother to Professor Mathew Forster 
Heddle, M.D., author of the “ Mineralogy of Scotland,” 
and Professor of Chemistry, St. Andrews University, 
both being sons of Robert Heddle of Melsetter 
and Hoy. He was, we believe, educated at the 
Edinburgh Academy, and studied for some time at 
Edinburgh University. One can readily understand 
how he spent the summer vacations in Walls and 
Hoy with the object of extending his knowledge of 
birds and plants. No one need wonder that these 
tastes were acquired early, when one has visited these 
lonely retreats so remote from the disturbing presence 
of man. Here one finds lochs dammed up amid the 
hills, fit homes for the shyer members of bird life. 
The moors are more extensive and the hills more 
numerous than one can realise from a passing view. 
The hills from the Melsetter side seem to rise in steps 
behind one another, and their bases interlace like 
some cunning network. Burns of all sizes—the homes 
of rare flowers——-wind through the deep valleys to the 
sea. It is true that one’s early environment often 
gives a youth’s mind a bent which is pursued through 
life. What other pursuit could a lad, sensitive to the 
impress and charm of nature, dream of than to 
become a lover of flowers and birds; whilst his dis- 
tinguished brother became one of the best authorities 
on geology and mineralogy. These were surely fitting 
spheres of labour for youths trained in the school of 
beetling cliffs and deep ravines, variegated meadows 
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