and his Ornithological Jl'ork. 723 



expedition to the Cape Verde Islands, being accompanied 

 by his friend Mr. John Duncan and two professional taxi- 

 dermists. The party landed at Sao Vicente on February the 

 10th, and spent about four months in exploring the various 

 islands of the group. Materials were thus gathered for his 

 excellent and exhaustive paper on the Avifauna of the Cape: 

 Verde Islands which was published in 'The Ibis'' for 1898, 

 pp. 74—118. Some new species rewarded the maiden efforts 

 of the explorer, the most important being a curious Lark 

 {Spizocorys razee), only met with on the little desert island 

 of Raza, which occupies an area of some three square miles. 

 Other notable species met with were the Desert Lark 

 {Pyrrhulauda nigriceps Gould), the Cape Verde Shearwater 

 (Puffinus edwardsi Oustal. = P. marice Alexander), the 

 White-breasted Frigate-Petrel [Pelagodroma marina (Lath.) ), 

 and Harcourt's Storm-Petrel (Oceanodroma castro Harcourt, 

 = O. cryptoleucura Hidgw.), all of which were found to be 

 breeding on some of the small rocky islands. 



Finding that his first visit to the islands had been too 

 late for the breeding season of most of the species, he 

 paid a second visit to the Cape Verde Islands in 1897 

 for the special purpose of obtaining eggs, and his further 

 notes on the group were published in ' The Ibis ' for 1898, 

 pp. 277-285. 



His next expedition took him to the Zambesi region, when 

 he formed one of the nine members of Major Gibbons's 

 1 Cape to Cairo ' Expedition, which set out from Chiudi on 

 the 18th of July, 1898. In company with his taxidermist 

 Ramm he explored the lower part of the Zambesi and 

 its tributary, the Kafue River, and formed a large col- 

 lection of nearly 1000 bird-skins representing 212 species, 

 several of which proved to be new. The results of this 

 important undertaking were fully described by Alexander 

 in ' The Ibis/ 1899, pp. 549-583, 1900, pp. 70-109, 424-458. 



No sooner had he completed his work on the Zambesi 

 Collection than he left England for service with the Gold 

 Coast Constabulary, and took part in the relief of Kumassi 

 in 1900, for which he obtained the medal and clasp. On 



