Sept, 191 6. The Irish Naturalist, 137 
COLIN M. SELBIE. 
Second Lieut. Colin M. Selbie was killed in an engagement 
on the Somme on the 14th July last. As one who had the 
pleasure of sharing both official and field work with him, 
I am privileged to express the sincere regret which has 
been caused amongst Irish friends and colleagues by the 
death of this able young naturalist. 
Selbie was born at Aberdeen in 1890, received his early 
training at the Aberdeen Grammar School and afterwards 
at Aberdeen University where he graduated with distinction, 
especially on the science side, and received the B.Sc. degree 
in 1910. In the following year he was appointed assistant 
naturalist in the Irish National Museum, having obtained 
first place in the examination for the vacant post. 
Shortly after the war broke out in August, 1914, he 
enUsted as a private in the Royal Scots Regiment, and a 
few months later he received a commission in the Scottish 
Rifles, a fitting reward for his enthusiasm and merit. In 
his letters home he records many narrow escapes ; he was 
slightly wounded early in the present year, and he returned 
to meet his death in the recent fighting. 
At the National Museum Selbie was chiefly engaged in 
work on the Crustacea, and most of the Irish cases of these 
animals were rearranged by him. Eventually this proved 
a very fortunate experience as it enabled him to accept a 
request from the Irish Fisheries authorities to report 
on the valuable collections of Crustacea made during 
the cruises of the fisheries s.s. " Helga." This was an 
exceptional opportunity for a young biologist to show his 
aptitude for zoological work. The collections to be ex- 
amined were nearly all dredged by the scientific staff of 
the Irish Fisheries during the last fifteen years mostly in 
deep water off the west coast of Ireland. The critical ex- 
amination of such collections of Crustacea is an exacting 
piece of work chiefly on account of the scarcity of many 
of these deep-sea animals and the imperfect knowledge of 
their life-histories, not to mention the extensive literature 
to be consulted on the subject. 
There can be no doubt that these difficulties were most 
successfully overcome, and the resulting report on three 
