72 2 Mr. W. R. Ogilvie-Grant: Boyd Alexander 
exploration might be described as taking the course pointed 
out by the birds.” 
At an early age Alexander began to form a local collection 
of the birds of bis native county (Kent), and while his 
father remained at Swifts Place these occupied a large room, 
which was known in the household as ‘ Boyd^s Museum/ 
When some years later Col. Alexander moved into his other 
house, Wilsley, Boyd found that his rapidly increasing 
collections necessitated the building of a special museum, 
and he constructed a capital house in the grounds. Ranged 
round the walls of this building may be seen a series of cases 
containing beautifully mounted examples of Kentish Birds, 
many of them of great local interest and rarity. The middle 
portion of the building is occupied by cabinets containing all 
his splendid collection of African bird-skins, and including 
the priceless type-specimens of the many novelties he has 
described. 
His studies on the birds of Kent were embodied in the 
section on “ Birds ” in the Victoria History of Kent, which 
he wrote during the intervals of his earlier journeys. 
Turning now to his work as an ornithologist the following 
is a brief resume of his principal writings. 
In 1896 we find his first published note in the ‘ Zoologist/ 
where he recorded an example of PlarcourPs Storm-Petrel 
(Oceanodroma castro), which had been picked up on the 
beach close to Littlestone, on the coast of Kent. It was 
the first British example of this species. In the spring 
and autumn of 1896 much of his time was spent on the 
coast of Kent studying the nesting-habits of the birds and 
their migrations, and his observations were published in 
three papers which appeared in the ‘ Zoologist 9 of that year, 
under the titles “ Ornithological Notes from Romney Marsh 
and its Neighbourhood” (pp. 246-253), “ Notes on Birds in 
Kent ” (pp. 344-349), and “ Ornithological Notes from Rye ” 
(pp. 408-416). Many of these observations are especially 
valuable as recording the movements of the various species 
on that part of the coast of Kent. 
In January of the following year he made his first 
