Letters, Announcements, ^c. 291 



five, although somewhat retiring in disposition, was of a par- 

 ticularly kind and amiable nature, always most friendly with 

 those with whom he was brought into contact, and ready to 

 help them by advice or assistance. Mr. Alston was of Scotch 

 parentage, and a native of Lanarkshire. Being from infancy 

 of delicate constitution, he was educated chiefly under private 

 tuition, and did not go to school. Notwithstanding these 

 disadvantages, he was a good scholar and a neat and con- 

 cise writer, and had an excellent acquaintance with com- 

 parative anatomy. Taking early to the pursuit of natural 

 history he became a contributor to the ' Zoologist ' and to 

 other popular journals, principally upon mammals and birds. 

 Mr. Alston^s first important paper was an account (published 

 in this Journal) of his journey to Archangel, made in 1872, 

 in company with his friend Mr. J. Harvie Brown, in which 

 excellent observations are given on the summer migrants and 

 other feathered inhabitants of that previously little explored 

 district. Shortly afterwards Mr. Alston moved his head- 

 quarters to London during the first part of the year, and 

 undertook the compilation of the portion of the ' Zoological 

 Record ' relating to mammals, which he carried on in a very 

 painstaking and methodical way for six years (1873-1878). 

 A new edition o£ BelFs ' British Mammals/ which had long 

 been called for, appeared in 1874. Mr. Alston, although he 

 is only credited with having " assisted " in this work, was, 

 we believe, its virtual compiler. From that date also he 

 became a frequent reader of papers at the meetings of the 

 Zoological Society and author of several excellent memoirs 

 in the 'Proceedings.^ Amongst these we may call special 

 attention to his revision of the genera of Rodentia, published 

 in 1876, as a most successful exposition of the many difficult 

 points connected with the arrangement of this group of 

 mammals, and to his memoirs on the Mammals of Asia 

 Minor collected by Mr. C. G. Danford (1877 and 1880). 

 In 1880 Mr. Alston also prepared the mammal portion of 

 the 'Fauna of Scotland''^, issued by the Natural- History 



* The Fauna of Scotland, with special reference to Clydesdale and the 

 Western District— Mammalia. By Edward R. Alston. 8vo : Glasgow, 

 1880. 



