ALFRED NEWTON. 35 



Tristram's Rectory, at Castle Eden. I have, however, 

 been further assured by Dr. F. D. Godman and Dr. P. L. 

 Sclater, the two surviving- original members, that the 

 idea of the " Union " was started in Cambridge, and 

 that Professor Newton was one of the prime movers 

 in its foundation. It had been the custom, so says 

 the " Preface " to Vol. I. of the " Ibis," for a few 

 gentlemen attached to the study of ornithology, most 

 of them more or less intimately connected with the 

 University of Cambridge, to meet together, once a year, or 

 oftener, to exhibit to one another the various objects of 

 interest which had occurred to them, and to talk over 

 both former and future plans of adding to their knowledge 

 of this branch of natural history. In 1857 the gathering 

 of ornithologists had been greater than before ; and it 

 was proposed to publish a magazine devoted solely to 

 ornithology, and in the following year the question was 

 again to be considered. In November, 1858, when another 

 meeting took place at Cambridge, the publication of a 

 quarterly journal was agreed upon, and the British Orni- 

 thologists' Union was founded, the number of members 

 being limited to twenty. Dr. P. L. Sclater, who was then 

 Secretary to the Zoological Society of London, was 

 appointed the first editor. 



And what a revelation that first part of the " Ibis " 

 was ! Dr. Sclater and Mr. Osbert Salvin began a series 

 of articles on the ornithology of Central America ; Canon 

 Tristram followed with an account of the birds observed 

 by him in Southern Palestine in March and Aj^ril, 1858, 

 the precursor of further memoirs in future numbers of the 

 "Ibis"; Mr. Edward Cavendish Taylor gave his orni- 

 thological reminiscences of Egypt in the winter of 1853 — 

 1854, a subject which he followed up on subsequent visits 

 to that country. To the first number Mr. T. C. Eyton 

 contributed an article on the methods of preparing natural 

 skeletons of birds, and Canon Tristram described nine 

 new species from the Algerian and Tunisian Sahara. 

 Professor Newton and his brother Edward commenced 



