Sm EDWARD NEWTON 287 



Nevertheless, I accord to H.-B. all the honour and glory 

 of identifying the spot where the last bond fide British 

 Great Auk was slain, and the print from the photograph 

 in the " Orkney " volume is marvellously good. 



We spent a peaceful Sabbath at the Shiants, the 

 third time I have been to that heavenly spot. But to 

 see the effect of the drought even there ! What had 

 always been banks of glowing green (on which the 

 Puffins looked like daisies) was this year of a hair- 

 brown.* 



His last cruise was in 1899, when the Aster went 

 all round the coast of Ireland. 



It was about this time that Newton suffered the 

 greatest loss of his lifetime by the death of his brother, 

 Sir Edward Newton, in April, 1897. Edward was 

 three years younger than Alfred, having been bom in 

 1832. All his life he was an ardent naturalist, and he 

 began to contribute notes to the Zoologist at the age of 

 twelve and a half. 



He was almost equal to a warrener in the way he 

 could find nests by watching the birds, or making them 

 show him where their nests were. There are now 

 several men who can do this, and have done it, 

 probably better than he ever did, but I think he was 

 the first naturalist who ever brought this into practice 

 — and it was for the love of watching the birds and 

 learning their ways, much more than with the object of 

 taking their eggs, that he did it.f 



From Cambridge, where he graduated in 1857, 

 Edward Newton went into the Colonial Service, and 

 was successively Assistant Colonial Secretary, Auditor- 

 General, and Colonial Secretary of Mauritius ; after- 

 wards he was Lieutenant-Governor and Colonial 



* Letter to Col. H. W. FeUden, August 14, 1893. 

 t Letter to H. B. Triatram, May 20, 1897. 



