1918] ObitHory. 301 



XNll.—Obihiary. 



Christopher James Alexander. 



C. J. Alexander was born on 24 March, 1887, and was 

 killed or died of wounds on 4 or 5 October, 1917. He 

 was the son of Joseph Gundry Alexander and was born at 

 Croydon ; he was educated at Bootham School, York, and 

 the South-Eastern Agricultural College, Wye, at both of 

 which he obtained scholarships ; he took his degree (B.Sc. 

 Agric.) in 1908, and remained at Wye on the staff for 

 another year. After devoting some time to mycological 

 work in England, he went in 1909 to Rome as redacteur 

 in the International Institute of Agriculture, and continued 

 that work until the beginning of 1916, when he returned 

 to England to join the Army. 



From his earliest years he showed the same love of natural 

 history whicli continued to the end. During several months 

 spent at Arcachon, when he was not twelve years old, he kept 

 daily lists of the birds he saw. Whilst he was at school 

 he kept careful diaries of observations on birds, plants, and 

 insects; after he left school he continued daily notes of 

 things seen and heard — including the song of birds, the 

 first blossoming of flowers, appearance of certain insects, 

 and appearance, increase, decrease, departure, and passage 

 of migrants — until the day of his death. 



He made very careful observations of bird-distribution 

 and migration, first in Kent and other parts of England, 

 and afterwards in the Province of Rome, where ecological 

 study was of unusual interest, since he was able to obtain a 

 pretty full knowledge of each zone from the Mediterranean 

 to the Alpine, all within a radius of thirty miles. 



In Flanders, too, he kept lists of the birds observed 

 throughout the autumn and winter in the various depart- 

 ments and environments, from the prolific avifauna of the 

 lower Somme in July to the sparse bird-life of the chalk- 

 downs further north in mid-winter. 



SER. X. VOL. VI. Y 



