24 EARLY INTEREST IN NATURAL HISTORY 



get caught in spiders' webs, and as often doubted. 

 Gosse declares that he is sure that no web could ever for 

 a moment stop the flight of any, even the least, species 

 of Humming-bird ; now here I have proof positive to the 

 contrary. It might be said that the bird was already 

 fatigued by its attempts to get out of the room ; but 

 then it must be remembered on the other hand that the 

 web was an old one, deserted and in rags ; had it been in 

 good order I much question whether the bird could have 

 escaped. 



From the West Indies Newton went to New Orleans, 

 and thence to Boston and New York, where a serious 

 illness prevented him from carrying out an extensive 

 tour in the United States and Canada. But his visit to 

 America, though it was never repeated, gave him a 

 cordial liking for American men and institutions, and it 

 was the beginning of an acquaintance with the leading 

 naturaUsts of the country, Agassiz, Baird, Coues, and 

 many others, with whom he kept up a life-long corre- 

 spondence. 



Another circumstance connected with this journey is 

 that he had the satisfaction of " teaching young America 

 how to blow eggs." Instead of the old method of 

 blowing eggs with two holes, he explained to them the 

 use of the drill and blowpipe, by means of which the 

 contents are removed through a single hole in the side of 

 the egg. His paper, entitled " Suggestions for Forming 

 Collections of Birds' Eggs," was pubhshed in their 

 Miscellaneous Collections by the Smithsonian Institution, 

 in 1860. 



Even when he was most busily occupied, Newton 

 always found time to write to an ever-increasing number 

 of friends in England and elsewhere, to make arrange- 

 ments for the annual meeting of ornithologists and to 

 negotiate exchanges of specimens and so on. One of his 



