VOL. XI.] C. J. ALEXANDER. 207 
old ; and we kept notes of birds seen and heard eventhen. In 
August, 1905, he spent some weeks at Champéry, Switzerland, 
whence he brought roots of Alpine plants, several of which, 
earefully tended by him from time to time, still flourish. 
He had a remarkable facility for understanding languages, 
and, apart from the value of this to him in his work at the 
International Institute, it helped him to become intimate 
with Italians, so that by the time the war came he felt 
himself almost more Italian than English. 
During his years in Italy—first at Rome and then at 
Albano —my brother spent nearly all his spare time observing 
the distribution and migrations of the birds of Rome province. 
The Institute is situated in the magnificent Villa Umberto 
Primo (Borghese gardens), where all sorts of birds appeared 
on migration and many species nested. One year he watched 
a Goldfinch on its nest from his window in the intervals of 
rédaction. When he lived at Albano he bathed daily in 
summer in the lake after his work, and mapped quantities of 
Nightingales and Icterine Warblers on the: wooded slopes, 
His week-ends were often spent at Fiumicino, where he 
explored the shore,the Isola Sacra, the ancient Porto, and the 
Tiber mouth. For over two years he added something new 
to his Fiumicino list on every visit. The rarities seen 
there included Siberian Chiffchaff and Gannet. 
By reason of the vast differences in altitude in the province, 
from sea-level to the heights of the Apennines, his task of 
making a complete study of its ornithology was of special 
interest. He gave particular attention to the effect of such a 
natural feature as the Alban Hills, standing over 3,000 feet 
high in the middle of the low Campagna, on migration, and 
to the comparison between bird-distribution in the Alban 
Hills and at similar altitudes in the Apennines. A summary 
of his observations on bird-distribution and on song in winter- 
quarters was contributed to British Birds this autumn ; but 
much valuable material is still unpublished. His observations 
on Flanders ornithology, contained in his letters, also include 
much of value. 
After Italy joined in the War my brother wished to join the 
Italian army, but was found medically unfit. In view of 
much that is said of the conflict of Italian and Slav ambitions 
on the Adriatic coast it may be worth noting that he felt 
especially keenly that we had “let down” Serbia badly, and 
later he had the same feeling about Roumania Happily he 
did not live to hear of the Italian disaster. 
It was no easy matter for him to set aside the Quaker 
principles of many generations of ancestors ; but at an earlier 
