722 Mr. W. R. Ogilvie-Grant : Boyd Alexander 



exploration might be described as taking the course pointed 

 out by the birds." 



At an early age Alexander began to form a local collection 

 of the birds of his native county (Kent), and while his 

 father remained at Swifts Place these occupied a large room, 

 which was known in the household as ' Boyd's Museum.' 

 When some years later Col. Alexander moved into his other 

 house, Wilsley, Boyd found that his rapidly increasing 

 collections necessitated the building of a special museum, 

 and he constructed a capital house in the grounds. Ranged 

 round the walls of this building may be seen a series of cases 

 containing beautifully mounted examples of Kentish Birds, 

 many of them of great local interest and rarity. The middle 

 portion of the building is occupied by cabinets containing all 

 his splendid collection of African bird-skins, and including 

 the priceless type-specimens of the many novelties he has 

 described. 



His studies on the birds of Kent were embodied in the 

 section on " Birds " in the Victoria History of Kent, which 

 he wrote during the intervals of his earlier journeys. 



Turning now to his work as an ornithologist the following 

 is a brief resume of his principal writings. 



In 1893 we find his first published note in the ' Zoologist/ 

 where he recorded an example of Harcourt's Storm-Petrel 

 (Oceanodroma castro), which had been picked up on the 

 beach close to Littlestone, on the coast of Kent. It was 

 the first British example of this species. In the spring 

 and autumn of 1896 much of his time was spent on the 

 coast of Kent studying the nesting-habits of the birds and 

 their migrations, and his observations were published in 

 three papers which appeared in the ' Zoologist ' of that year, 

 under the titles " Ornithological Notes from Romney Marsh 

 and its Neighbourhood " (pp. 246-253), " Notes on Birds in 

 Kent " (pp. 344-349), and " Ornithological Notes from Rye " 

 (pp. 408-416). Many of these observations are especially 

 valuable as recording the movements of the various species 

 on that part of the coast of Kent. 



In January of the following year he made his first 



