64 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



with tlie G-rand Diicliess Olga, sister of the late Alexander the 

 Second of Russia, and was conferred upou its recipient as a 

 o-eneral representative of science, for the Baron's accomplish- 

 ments in this respect comprehended medicine, chemistry, palae- 

 ontology, and geography, as well as botany ; and geographers 

 more particularly have commemorated his name by bestowing it 

 on a mountain and a river in Central Australia, on another in 

 Spitzbergen, on a cataract in Parana, and on a glacier in 

 New Zealand. 



Australia has lost her first phvtologist, and science one whose 

 influence will long be felt in his own special line, a man of marted 

 personality, whose delicate constitution was never sufl^ered to 

 withdraw him from work which he had undertaken, till the final 

 summons came. 



Sir Edwakd Newton, M.A., K.C.M.G-., was born at Elveden 

 in the county of Suffolk on the 10th of November, 1832, being 

 the youngest sou of the late William Newton, Esq., of that place, 

 and Elizabeth, daughter of Eichard Slater Milnes, of Eryston, 

 in the county of York. In 1 845 he began communicating ornitho- 

 logical note's to ' The Zoologist,' which were chiefly records of 

 migration or nidification, for from his earliest years he was 

 devoted to birds'-nesting, and in the scientific practice of that 

 pursuit attained remarkable proficiency. In 1849 he commenced 

 (with his brother Prof. Newton) a daily Eegister of all the bii'ds 

 he saw, after a method described iii the ' Transactions of the 

 Norfolk and Norwich Naturalists' Society ' (1870, p. 24), and, 

 with very few breaks, this Eegister was kept at Elveden for 

 nearly ten years. But he did not con6ne his ornithological 

 interest to field observations, and he devoted much attention to 

 the Osteology of Birds, so as to be able to recognize at sight 

 almost any bone shown to him. 



Entering at Magdalene College, Cambridge, and graduating 

 B.A. in 1857, he the next year went to the "West Indies, and 

 passed several months in the island of St. Croix, subsequently 

 contributing (jointly with his brother) to the newly-founded. 

 ' Ibis ' a series of papers ou the Birds of that Island. In 1859 

 he was appointed Assistant Colonial Secretary of Mauritius, 

 being promoted to the post of Auditor- Greneral in 1863, and 

 Colonial Secretary in 1868. He was a member of the Mission 

 sent in 1861 by the Government of that Colony to congratulate 

 King Eadama II. on bis accession to the throne of Madagascar, 

 and was the first English zoologist to set foot on that island for 

 nearly twenty-five years. The ornithological results of his 

 journey were recorded in ' The Ibis ' (1 862, p. 265 ; ] 863, pp. 43 

 and 165), and were so promising that in the following year he 

 paid a second vdsit to that country, solely for the sake of investi- 

 gating its ornithology, and with results still more satisfactory 

 (Ibis," 1863, pp. 333 and 452). In 1864 he seized an oppor- 

 tunity of going to Eodriguez, the known locality of the extinct 



