74 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



took always an interest in its affairs, and served for some years as 

 a member of council. His chief contributions while a resident 

 member were: — a paper on the habits of the Roe deer, and another 

 on the Reptiles and Mammals of Sutherlandshire. On leaving this 

 district to settle permanently in London, he was elected, in October, 

 1873, a Corresponding Member. He made about this time several 

 donations of valuable books to the Library. When the Society 

 resolved upon issuing catalogues of the Fauna of Scotland Mr. 

 Alston undertook the preparation of various lists, only one of 

 which he lived to complete — his " Mammalia of Scotland " — which 

 the Society published in 1880. It was much appreciated, and is 

 accounted very complete and trustworthy, embodying as it does 

 the results of many years' study and observation. At the annual 

 meeting in 1880, Mr. Alston was elected an Honorary Member of 

 the Society, and in acknowledging the notice of his election, he 

 wrote that he considered it a high honour that had been conferred 

 on him, it being the first scientific institution with which he was 

 connected. 



In 1871, as already mentioned, he paid a visit to Norway, 

 accompanied by his friend, Mr. Harvie-Brown, for making collec- 

 tions and notes on Natural History — principally birds and mammals, 

 and spent there about 1 1 weeks, viz., from May 5th to July 25th. The 

 trip was undertaken without any expectations of important results, 

 and no full account of it ever appeared, but several notes and 

 references to the habits, &c, of the birds observed are given in 

 Mr. H. E. Dresser's " Birds of Europe." 



Another more extensive expedition was planned and carried out 

 in 1872, when the same two friends left Scotland in the beginning 

 of June for Archangel and the White Sea, their stay there being 

 some two months, after which they returned home round the N. 

 Cape, and landed at Peterhead on the 12th of August. The results 

 were a short paper to " The Ibis " of 1873, entitled " Notes on the 

 Birds of Archangel," and considerable additions to their cabinets 

 of birds and eggs. 



Since that date Mr. Alston's travels were for the most part confined 

 to Great Britain — a short visit to Norway for salmon fishing in 

 1876, a stay at Nice in the winter of 1872-3, and shorter visits to 

 Paris and the Continent, taken with members of his own family, 

 excepted. In Scotland his trips were used more for relaxation and 

 health, after his scientific work in London, than for study, and his 



