Vol. VII. 

 1007 



1 Correspondence. II3 



Thompson), and all had the snow-white bases to the feathers. 

 Which were they, Ravens or Crows ? Has any Tasmanian 

 specimen been found with the dark feather bases ? It would be 

 interesting to have this point cleared up, and also to hear from 

 other members whether the feather test has been found uni- 

 formly reliable. — I am, &c., 



H. STUART DOVE. 

 Launceston, 16/7/07. 



Obituary Notice. 



PROFESSOR ALFRED NEWTON, M.A., F.R.S., ETC. 



All bird-lovers will deeply regret the death of Professor Alfred 

 Newton, F.R.S., especially many Australian students, who from 

 time to time received his kind encouragement and sound advice 

 in the field of ornithology. Although an Honorary Member of 

 the A.O.U., out of sympathy with the Australian workers he 

 forwarded the ordinary subscription since the Union's inception. 

 His last literary contribution, which appeared in The Emu, was 

 in the form of a letter to Mr. Ernest Scott on the subject of 

 Dampier's " Galdens." * To do justice to the life and labour of 

 so great an ornithologist as the late Professor would need a very 

 able pen and a vast amount of research, therefore the editors 

 take the liberty of giving Mr. H. E. Dresser's (a member, by the 

 way, of the A.O.U.) sympathetic remarks as they appeared in 

 The Zoologist, 15th July, 1907 : — 



" Zoologists in general, but especially ornithologists and 

 oologists, will deplore the loss of Professor Alfred Newton, one 

 of our most distinguished and soundest zoologists, who passed 

 away on the 7th of June. Professor Newton, who held the Chair 

 of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy at Cambridge since 1866, 

 was well known and most highly esteemed, not only in Great 

 Britain, but in every country where zoology, and more especially 

 ornithology, is studied, and his writings, though many, were not 

 so voluminous as they might well have been, for he never put 

 pen to paper until he had fully studied his subject, and in conse- 

 quence nothing that he wrote will pass away, but will stand as a 

 lasting memorial of the care and hard work he bestowed on all 

 that he undertook. Extreme accuracy was with him the corner- 

 stone of all his work, and he would spend weeks of labour and 

 earnest research in verifying any reference. It is scarcely neces- 

 sary here to enumerate all the works he has written, but amongst 

 these I may especially name his ' Dictionary of Birds,' written 

 with the co-operation of Messrs. Hans Gadow, Richard Lydek- 

 ker, Charles S. Ray, and Robert W. Shufeldt, a work which is 



* V^ol. vi., p. 151— a subject continued in the present issue (p. loi) by a letter 

 from Mr. Tom Carter. — Eds. 



