308 MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS 



We have now got a pretty deep snow, which I find 

 very uncomfortable, though the resources of civilisation 

 in the shape of " lawn-tennis soles " to my boots enable 

 me to get about more freely than before their in- 

 vention. 



News I have none and I am almost compelled to 

 comment upon Mr. Parnell's doings, low as that form of 

 eking out a letter would be, but even there everything 

 that can be said on the subject has been said, and 

 novelty is impossible. Guillemard has sent me a copy 

 of his " Ferdinand Magellan " and I am charmed with 

 so much of it as I have read. The story is of itself 

 most interesting and it is capitally treated by him. I 

 feel quite glad that he had some of my books to work 

 with especially as at last I have got them safe again. 

 Do you know anything of our Canon ? I wrote to him 

 some weeks ago asking if he really meant to go to the 

 Sandwich Islands, but have had no reply. It will be a 

 pity if he has contracted the modern habit of not 

 answering letters. 



I yesterday had from a friend a bone which he had 

 found under a Golden Eagle's nest, and on taking it to 

 the Museum I discovered to my surprise that it was a 

 Shag's, and a young one at that so the inference must 

 be that Golden Eagles rob Shags' nests, a rather curious 

 thing. 



Wishing you, Lady Lilford and all yours the best of 

 wishes, believe me to be, 



Yours very truly, 



ALFRED NEWTON. 



P.S. Kiwis are too nocturnal, or at least crepus- 

 cular, to be entertaining though years ago Wolley, my 

 brother Edward and I were much interested by watching 

 the first Apteryx that came alive to England for an 

 hour or two by the aid of a bull's-eye lantern. And we 

 stood the poor creature a drink, the first it had had 

 since its arrival and, so far as I could learn, the only 

 one it enjoyed during its long captivity. It was nice 



