Oh'ituarrj. 225 



XX. — Oh'ituary. 

 The late Professor Newton, M.A., F.lv.S. 



The following appreciative and interesting obituary notice 

 of the late Professor Newton appeared in the ' Field ' of 

 June 15th : — 



Not only the University of Cambridge, but zoologists, and 

 especially ornithologists, all the world over will deplore the 

 death last week of Professor Alfred Newton, who since 1886 

 held the Chair of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy at Cam- 

 bridge, and was President of the Cambridge Philosophical 

 Society. As the leading ornithologist in this country, with 

 the most extensive acquaintance with the literature of the 

 subject, he had a world-wide reputation, and while he enjoyed 

 the esteem and respect of his compeers, he was regarded with 

 a reverence akin to awe by the younger generation of natu- 

 ralists, who were accustomed to look up to him for enlighten- 

 ment or advice in all their doubts and difficulties. Nor did 

 they ever appeal to him in vain, for his kindly disposition 

 prompted him at once to enter into their pursuits, and out of 

 the fulness of his knowledge to answer their inquiries. 



Nearly fifty years ago (in 1858) he helped to found " The 

 British Ornithologists^ Union," and at the time of his death 

 was one of five original members then surviving. Of the 

 famous journal of that society, known as ' The Ibis,' embody- 

 ing the most important contributions to ornithology, and for 

 many years enriched by the unrivalled coloured plates by the 

 late Joseph Wolf, he was for six years the Editor, and did 

 much to secure for it the high position amongst natural 

 history journals which it has ever since deservedly maintained. 

 He made an ideal editor, too, for he was master of his 

 subject, had travelled far and wide, to Lapland, Iceland, 

 Spitzbergen, the West Indies, and North America in the 

 yacht of his friend the late Henry Evans of Jura ; he had 

 visited the Hebrides and other remote parts of the British 

 Islands while prosecuting his studies of bird-life, inspected 

 the most important public and private museums at home and 



