36 BRITISH BIRDS. 



field-notes and observations. Brief reference only need 

 be made liere to tlie work of the last fourteen years, for 

 although of great interest and importance, it has no 

 direct reference to British ornithology and will be dealt 

 with in another and more suitable place by one more 

 fitted for the task than the present A^Titer. 



Although only thirty-seven years of age at the time 

 of his death, Boyd Alexander had already made for himself 

 an honourable name amongst the intrepid band of British 

 explorers who have done so much to throw light upon the 

 hidden mysteries of the dark continent. In the course 

 of all his travels his favourite pursuit of ornithology 

 always held a prominent place, and mdeed his first 

 expedition to the Cape Verdes in 1897 was undertaken 

 solely from motives of ornithological exploration and 

 may be said to have served as an introduction to the 

 more ambitious researches and travels in the Islands of 

 the Gulf of Guinea and the continent of Africa, which 

 have added so much to geographical and ornithological 

 science and shed such lustre on the name of their author. 



Accounts of his various expeditions with special 

 reference to their ornithological aspects were published 

 by him in the Ihis as follows : — " On an Ornithological 

 expedition to the Cape Verde Islands " {Ihis, 1898, pp. 

 74, 277) ; " On an Ornithological Expedition to the 

 Zambesi River " {oj). cit., 1899, p. 549 ; 1900, pp. 70, 424) ; 

 " On the Birds of the Gold Coast and its Hinterland " 

 {op. cit., 1902, pp. 278, 355) ; " On the Birds of Fernando 

 Po " {op. cit., 1903, p. 330). The two papers on the birds 

 obtained during his great journey from the Niger to the 

 Nile, which were foreshadowed in the Ihis for 1908, p. 203, 

 have not yet been published, although the new species 

 discovered on this journey have been described in the 

 Bulletin of the British Ornithologists^ Cluh. 



To those who knew him, Boyd Alexander was a charming 

 personality and a well-loved friend. Amongst ornitholo- 

 gists and explorers he was in the front rank. His loss will 

 indeed be hard to bear. N. F. T. 



