HISTORICAL PREFACE xxxv. 



species, that individuals should live too long, old age would 

 be accompanied by weakness, and that species ought to 

 be the most successful which has in its ranks the most 

 vigorous adults. As soon as a Gannet ceases to produce 

 offspring, or only begets weakly ones, it is for the good of 

 the race that it should perish, for the reproduction of its 

 land is the aim and purpose of every animal's life. In 

 every settlement of Gannets there are said to be a certain 

 number of these old and barren birds Avhich live apart. 



It is hardly to be expected that one writer could do 

 justice to such an extraordinary bird as the Gannet single- 

 handed, and I have had help on all hands, for which I am 

 very grateful. In particular my Father's valued friend, 

 and my most kind correspondent, the late Professor Alfred 

 Newton — a Suffolk man, although best known as of 

 Cambridge — ^rendered invaluable assistance during the last 

 four years of his Hfe, which terminated at the age of 

 seventy-eight, to the regret of zoologists of every nation, 

 on June 7th, 1907. I am glad to say I was privileged 

 to be one of those who paid a final tribute of respect 

 to his memory on June 10th, in St. Giles's Church, 

 Cambridge. By a coincidence the 7th was the day on 

 which the bicentenary of the birth of the great reformer 

 of Natural History, Linneeus was being celebrated, a 

 man whom in his devotion to natural science, as Avell as 

 in his methodical habits of registering Natural History 

 observations, it may be truly said that Newton from an 

 early age not a little resembled, in proof of which I need 

 only point to the elaborate ornithological " Register-book" 



*c2 



