( 204 ) 
Cc. J. ALEXANDER. 
CHRISTOPHER JAMES ALEXANDER was born at Croydon 
on March 24th, 1887. He was seriously wounded near ~ 
Passchendaele on October 4th, 1917, and it seems almost 
certain that he was killed, or died after being put on the — 
ambulance, though the only information of his death yet — 
received is unofficial and lacking in detail. 
Several members of the family in older generations, notably — 
his great-grandfather, James Backhouse of York, had been 
distinguished by their interest in natural history ; and the 
love of birds, which was destined to become one of the ruling 
motives of my brother’s life, was obtained very early, largely 
through the influence of our uncle, Mr. J. B. Crosfield, of 
Reigate. He won entrance and leaving scholarships at 
Bootham School, York, and was a distinguished member of 
its Natural History Society, which is the oldest in any school. 
During his schooldays he collected butterflies and moths, and 
gave much of his time both then and later to the study of 
botany and geology. His interest in science and natural 
history was, in fact, never narrowly departmental : he could 
always collate his observations on the avifauna of a district 
with a full knowledge of the geological and botanical environ- 
ment and minute observations of meteorological phenomena ; 
nor were his studies of these subjects merely subsidiary to the 
interest in birds: his careful notes on plant distribution both 
in England and Italy are of special value, and some of them 
he sent to Professor Seward at Cambridge. 
After leaving school in 1904 my brother gained a scholar- 
ship at the South-Eastern Agricultural College at Wye, 
Kent, and remained there, first as a student and then, after 
he had taken his B.Sc. in Agriculture, on the staff, until 
the end of 1909. From Wye he frequently visited Romney 
Marsh and other parts of Kent. In this way he added 
much to the knowledge of Kentish ornithology and natural 
history already obtained from living at Tunbridge Wells. 
Soon after he left school I made the joyful discovery that 
his ornithological bent was almost exactly like my own; 
we had always spent a lot of time watching birds together, 
often also with my brother, W. B. Alexander, now in Australia ; 
but somehow the discovery of our identity of ornithological 
outlook came quite suddenly. We began by making careful 
observations on the departure of autumn migrants in 
September, 1905 (though we had a number of records of 
arrivals and departures since 1897); and when I returned 
to school we began a regular interchange of bird letters 


