BIRDS OF DUMFRIESSHIRE 
printed by the Commissioners, but was published 
in 1808 after his death by his friend Charles Stewart, 
as An Economical History of the Hebrides. He 
returned to Mofiat, where he pursued his scientitic 
studies. Hon. M.D.Glasgow, and D.D.Edinburgh 
1765 On June 15th, 1779, he obtained the post of 
Professor of Natural History at Edinburgh University, 
at the same time refusing to retire from his 
Ministry. On February 1 3th, 1 783, he was translated 
from Moffat to Colinton, where, in the latter years 
of his life he became blind, and died January 22nd, 
1 804 His pubHcations include Schediasrm Fossilium, 
178l'- Delineutis Fossilium, 1782; Institutes of 
Natural History, 1792; and Essays on Natural 
History and Rural Economy, pubUshed posthumously 
in 1812 by Charles Stewart. Dr. Walker wrote 
numerous essays and contributions to vols, i- and ii. 
of the Transactions of the Highland Society, and to the 
Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh of 
which latter Society he was one of the first members 
of management in 1783. 
His favourite study was Botany, but he seems to 
have been " a kind of naturalist by intuition, in a 
letter to Lord Kames he writes " Let your Lordship 
pursue the analogy between plants and mankind as tar 
as you will, it is not likely I shall be as much offended 
as will my friend Linnseus. I have been from my 
cradle fond of vegetable life, and though I lik^^^^y 
species and the rank I hold in creation I declare 
I would sooner claim kindred to an oak or to an 
apple-tree than to an ape."* 
* Nat. Lib., 1843, Vol. XII., p. 17. 
