272 The late Professor Newton.


or whether they represent ancestral " paleogenetic " characters

remains a point to be settled later.


Finally, I wish to express my gratitude to Mr. Seth-Smith

for having so kindly sent me this specimen which is now incor-

porated in the collections of the British Museum, so that it will

be available for the inspection of all who may desire to see it.


[Aviculturists who have the misfortune to lose nestlings of

any rare birds would do well to send them to Mr. Py craft at the

Natural History Museum, S.W., immediately after death. — Ed.]



THE LATE PROFESSOR NEWTON, F.R.S.



The world of Zoology, and more especially of Ornithology,

has just lost one of its greatest and best supporters, for on the

7th June last Professor Alfred Newton, F.R.S., one of the Honorary

Members of our Society, passed away in his rooms at Magdalene

College, Cambridge.


Professor Newton was born at Geneva on the nth June,

1829, and was the fifth sou of William Newton, of Elvedeu,

Suffolk, formerly M.P. for Ipswich.


He was educated privately, and during his early life his

love for birds, as well as his extreme capacity for careful and

conscientious work was shown by his keeping — in conjunction

with his brother, the late Sir Edward Newton — a daily register

of the common birds observed in his father's grounds, whereby

many valuable data as to the local movements of some of our

commoner birds were obtained. He graduated at Magdalene

College in 1853, and shortly afterwards became a travelling

Fellow of his college, visiting Iceland, Spitzbergen, Lapland,

North America and the West Indies. From observations made

on these trips, he contributed papers on the avifauna of the

countries visited. It was during one of these voyages that he

met with the accident which curtailed his activity, but until

within the last few years, he used regularly to spend some weeks

yachting on the Hebrides, with his friend, the late Henry Evans,

and on those trips never failed to study the birds met with. He

was one of the most open-minded of men, and though he had



