120 OUKilXAL MEM151;KS. 



Avliile his licalth, already severely tried in Mauritius, began 

 to be seriously nfl'ected by the climate. He had little or no 

 time for researches, and could but rarely leave his post. 

 Nevertheless he did what lie could. He made an almost 

 ■complete collection of the birds of the island, and the " Jjist 

 of the Birds of Jamaica/' iniblished in the ' Handbook of 

 Jamaica,' 1881^ p. 103^ adds not a little to the standard work 

 of Gosse. 



NeAvton^s investigations of the extinct fauna of the Masca- 

 renes claim special notice. It is not easy to state precisely 

 what we owe him in the way of discovery of extinct species. 

 To his care and encouragement v.'as largely owing the success 

 of Mr. Clarke in the original researches in the Mare aux 

 Songes, where the great find of Dodo-remains Avas effected. 

 There are several species from Rodriguez described by 

 ]Milue-Edwards, and again by Newton and Dr. Giinther in 

 the Transit volume of the Phil. Trans., and by Newton and 

 Gadow in an article on the remains discovered in Mauritius 

 by Sauzier (Trans. Z. S. xiii. p. 281, 1893). Newton was 

 certainly the first to recognise among the bones from^ the 

 Mare aux Songes those of Aphanaptenj^r, which he instantly 

 referred to the bird just previously described by Frauenfeld 

 from the old Vienna picture. 



For the last five years Sir Edward's health was perceptibly 

 declining. Yet, though always more or less of an invalid, 

 liis interest in the pursuits of his more vigorous days never 

 flagged, as witness the paper last referred to. The unselfish 

 modesty which marked all his natural-history work was equally 

 conspicuous in his daily life. His whole nature was the very 

 •opposite of self-asserting. There was a delightful charm in 

 the simplicity and genuineness of the man, which won the 

 hearts of all who knew him well ; and looking back on a 

 friendship of forty years, the writer can but feel it to have 

 been a high privilege to have known one in whose character 

 Avcre blended all the qualities that go to make the careful, 

 truthful naturalist, and the refined Christian gentleman. 

 He died at Lowestoft on April 25th, 1897. 



