Suggestions for forming Collections of Birds' Eggs. 415 



LIII. — Remarks on Mr. A, Newton's " Suggestions for forming 



Collections of Birds' Eggs*". 

 "There's life in the old land yet!'^ was our involuntary ex- 

 clamation^ when^ on taking up Mr. Newton's pamphlet, we 

 found that though our grandchildren in the New World and at 

 the Antipodes are thought capable of instructing their aged 

 parent in the use of the ballot-box, yet their grandmother still 

 knows how to teach them to suck eggs. 



We learn from Mr. Newton, that, before the appearance of his 

 work from an English press, he had already given 3000 lessons 

 to our Yankee cousins in the art and * mysterie' of sucking 

 eggs. We might have been captious with our valued friend for 

 not giving ourselves the first benefit of his instructions ; for, so 

 far as our acquaintance with British collections enables us to 

 form a judgment, we think his lessons are still much needed at 

 home. But probably his modesty induced him to believe them 

 superfluous, at least for the readers of the 'Ibis,' and we can 

 only rejoice that his ' Suggestions' are now accessible to all. 



To our late and deeply-lamented coadjutor, Mr. Wolley, 

 Mr. Newton attributes the chief merits of his 'Suggestions'; 

 but certainly no apology was required for them from one, whose 

 collection now stands indisputably at the head of the oological 

 museums of the world. 



We cannot too emphatically repeat the remark in Mr. New- 

 ton's preface, that " if the study of Natural History is to be 

 much benefited by an extended knowledge of Oology, it is of 

 the utmost importance that our knowledge of it should rest on 

 a firm and truthful basis, and this end can only be obtained by 

 unremitting caution and scrupulousness on the part of egg- 

 collectors." Again, " The main points to be attended to, as 

 being those by which science can alone be benefited, are iden- 

 tification and authentication." To each of these topics 

 Mr. Newton devotes a distinct section, and their importance 

 cannot be too strongly impressed upon all collectors. It 

 is melancholy to see what sums of money and simple zeal are 



* " Suggestions for forming Collections of Birds' Eggs. By Alfred 

 Newton, M.A., Fellow of Magdalen College, Cambridge, &c." London : 

 E. Newman, 1860. 



