124 EAELY DAYS OF DARWINISM 



in his nervous juxta-matrimonial state, and the only con- 

 dition under which he would allow the dinner to take 

 place), so that as soon as Sclater left, which he did early, I 

 proposed his health and every one drank it ; whereby it is 

 difficult to say whether the association did not thereupon 

 dissolve itself ! " * 



Thenceforward Newton never wavered in his alle- 

 giance to Darwin's views, and very soon (1863) pubhshed 

 in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society an interesting 

 confirmation and illustration of Darwin's remarks on the 

 way in which seeds may be dispersed by birds, describir^ 

 the case of a partridge which had been found with its 

 foot firmly imbedded in a lump of hardened earth. When 

 the " Animals and Plants under Domestication " was 

 pubhshed in 1868, he wrote in the Record of Zoological 

 Literature a detailed and very appreciative notice of it, 

 dealing more particularly with the Pigeons, which was 

 acknowledged most cordially by Mr. Darwin. 



Down, Beckenham, Kent, 

 Feb. 9, 1870. 



Dear Newton, 



I suppose it would be universally held ex- 

 tremely wrong for a defendant to write to a Judge to 

 express his satisfaction at a judgment in his favour ; and 

 yet I am going thus to act. I have just read what you 

 have said in the Record about my Pigeon chapters, and 

 it has gratified me beyond measure. I have sometimes 

 felt a httle disappointed that the labour of so many years 

 seemed to be almost thrown away, for you are the first 

 man, capable of forming a judgment (excepting partly 

 QUatrefages) who seems to have thought anything of 

 this part of my work. The amount of labour, corre- 

 spondence, and care, which the subject cost me, is more 

 than you could well suppose. I thought the article in 

 the AthenoBum, written, I have no doubt, by Owen, was 

 very unjust ; but now I feel amply repaid, and I cordially 



* Letter to Edward Newton, October 8, 1862. 



