MEMOIR OF THE LATE EDWARD R. ALSTON. 149 
Ibis’ for 1878, he settled down in London, and devoted his 
leisure hours to Zoology, attending the lectures at the Royal 
College of Surgeons, and visiting the Prosector’s studio at the 
Zoological Society’s Gardens, where, with the assistance of the 
late Prof. Garrod, and of his successor Mr. W. A. Forbes, he 
made much progress in the study of comparative anatomy. 
It was about this time (1873) that he began to work earnestly 
at a study of the Mammalia, combining research into the litera- 
ture of the subject with an examination not merely of the external 
form of museum specimens, but of the osteology and internal 
structure whenever opportunity presented itself. In this year he 
undertook the difficult duty of recorder for ‘The Zoological 
Record’ of the class Mammala, a duty which he discharged with 
efficiency until the close of the year 1878, when he was succeeded 
by Mr. W. A. Forbes. 
Elected a Fellow of the Zoological Society in 1869, hig first 
contribution to the ‘Proceedings’ of that Society appeared in 
1874, in the shape of remarks ‘‘ On a new species of Pteropus 
from Samoa ;” and in the same year, in conjunction with Dr. H. 
Blackmore, he communicated a valuable paper on Fossil Arvi- 
colide. These were succeeded by the following :—‘‘ On Anoma- 
lurus, its structure and position” (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1875); ‘On 
the Murine Dormouse, Graphiurus murinus”’ (1875); ‘‘On the 
classification of the Order Glires”” (1876); ‘‘On the genus Dasy- 
procta’”’ (1876); ‘‘On two new species of Hesperomys’’ (1876) ; 
“On the Rodents and Marsupials of Duke of York Island and 
New Britain’ (1877); ‘‘On an undescribed Shrew from Central 
America”’ (1877); ‘‘On the Mammals of Asia Minor” (1877); 
“On the Dentition of Cuscus ”’ (1878); ‘‘On Synaptomys Cooperi”’ 
(1878) ; ‘‘On the Squirrels of the Neotropical Region ” (1878) ; 
“On female Deer with Antlers” (1879); ‘On the specific 
identity of the British Martens” (1879); “On Acanthomys 
leucopus of Gray” (1879); ‘‘On Burmese and Afghan Mammals ” 
(1879) ; ‘On a skull of Tapirus dowi” (1879); “On a four- 
horned Chamois” (1879); ‘‘On Tapirus dowi and Antechinomys 
lanigera”’ (1880); ‘‘On Antechinomys and its allies” (1880). 
Of his contributions to Scottish periodicals we have no com- 
plete list, but we cannot pass unnoticed his ‘ Catalogue of the 
Mammals and Reptiles of Sutherlandshire,’ revised and issued in 
pamphlet form in 1875, and his ‘ Catalogue of Scottish Mammals,’ 
