Edward Richard Alston (1 December 1845 – 7 March 1881) was a Scottish zoologist. Alston was born at Stockbriggs, near

Lesmahagow Lesmahagow ( ; sco, Lismahagie or ''Lesmahagae'', gd, Lios MoChuda) is a small town in the historic county of Lanarkshire on the edge of moorland, near Lanark in the central belt of Scotland. Lesmahagow was also a civil parish. It lies west o ...

, on 1 December 1845. He was delicate in youth, so chiefly self-educated at home. He very early contributed to ''

The Zoologist ''The Zoologist'' was a monthly natural history magazine established in 1843 by Edward Newman and published in London. Newman acted as editor-in-chief until his death in 1876, when he was succeeded, first by James Edmund Harting (1876–1896) ...

'' and various Scottish magazines, and ultimately became an acknowledged authority on

mammalia Mammals () are a group of vertebrate animals constituting the class Mammalia (), characterized by the presence of mammary glands which in females produce milk for feeding (nursing) their young, a neocortex (a region of the brain), fur o ...

and

birds Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...

. His principal papers in the ''Proceedings of the Zoological Society'' (1874–80) are upon rodents, especially American squirrels (1878 and 1879). The division Mammalia in Salvin and Godman's ''

Biologia Centrali-Americana The ''Biologia Centrali-Americana'' is an encyclopedia of the natural history of Mexico and Central America, privately issued in 215 parts from 1879 to 1915 by the editors Frederick DuCane Godman and Osbert Salvin, of the British Museum (Natural ...

'' was written by him, though its publication was incomplete at his death. In 1880, he was elected zoological secretary of the

Linnean Society The Linnean Society of London is a learned society dedicated to the study and dissemination of information concerning natural history, evolution, and taxonomy. It possesses several important biological specimen, manuscript and literature colle ...

, which office he held till his death from acute phthisis on 7 March 1881. In 1874, he largely assisted Professor Thomas Bell in the second edition of ''British Quadrupeds''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alston, Edward Richard Scottish zoologists Fellows of the Linnean Society of London Fellows of the Zoological Society of London 1845 births 1881 deaths 19th-century Scottish people People from South Lanarkshire 19th-century deaths from tuberculosis Tuberculosis deaths in Scotland