xx PREFACE. 
entrance and feed from his hand. In ‘‘Notes of my Bird Cage”’ 
‘(Zool. 8.8. 8157) will be found an account of his success in 
breeding the little Australian parrakeet (Melopsittacus wndu- 
latus): he possessed upwards of thirty at one time, all bred in 
the aviary. A diary of the birds, after the manner of Gilbert 
White, was carefully kept, and short notes frequently appeared 
in the magazines. He had a great affection for all living animals, 
and could not bear to see anything suffer, even for its own 
good. He frequently visited the Zoological Gardens, always 
intent on gaining information; and in his later years was 
earnestly at work on a new classification of birds. One of his 
friends writes, with reference to these visits to the Zoological 
Gardens, and to the proposed classification of birds which he 
did not live to complete, and of which but few fragments 
remain :—‘‘ For forty years a visit to the Zoological Gardens 
has been one of my greatest enjoyments ; but with Mr. Newman, 
who was my frequent companion, the pleasure was very much 
enhanced. He would stand to watch the movements of that 
remarkable bird, the Caviama (Dicholophus cristatus); its 
position amongst birds “was to him a puzzle, but he at last, 
I am inclined to think, regarded it as a Raptorial bird, 
as classified by Mr. Sharpe, of the British Museum. He 
attached great importance to the mode by which a bird 
progressed on the ground, and he exhibited almost a childish 
delight when he first observed that eagles hopped. Natural 
History was to Mr. Newman not only an intellectual scientific 
study, but was also an absorbing passion.” He was at this 
time devoting as much attention to Entomology as to other 
branches of Zoology, making an especial study of the Gallflies 
and their productions, of the Sawflies, and the Bees,—the latter 
chiefly with a view to observations on the fertilisation of 
plants by their agency. His ‘Collected Observations on British 
Sawflies’”’ were laid aside for years, and their revision and 
publication in the ‘ Entomologist’ was only commenced shortly 
before his death. It is hoped that further instalments may yet 
appear, containing his later views on a natural classification of 
Insects,—a subject which had continuously occupied his thoughts 
since 1834. 
The end was now drawing near. In February, 1872, he had 
