Alfred Newton. xlvi 
with its foot firmly imbedded in a lump of hardened earth. In the address 
which he gave to the Department of Botany and Zoology at the meeting of 
the British Association in 1876, while praising the then recently published 
volume by Alfred Russell Wallace on “The Geographical Distribution of 
Animals,” he emphatically refers to the modern theory of evolution as 
worthy of “the chief glory in giving a real and lasting value to the 
interpretation of the facts of animal distribution.” 
The subject of the distribution of plants and animals over the surface of 
the globe was one to which Newton devoted much thought, and on which he 
wrote with his characteristic breadth, caution, and critical discernment. 
His treatment of the “ Geographical Distribution of Birds ” in the ninth edition 
of the ‘Encyclopedia Britannica’ may be referred to as an excellent 
example of the way in which he looked at such questions of wide biological 
bearing. He naturally took a deep interest in everything connected with 
the extinction of species. In the address to the British Association above 
referred to, he drew a vivid and humorous picture of the effects of human 
interference with the economy of nature, picturing the consequences of 
man’s occupation of an island, as seen in the destruction of its indigenous 
fauna and flora, and their replacement by the animals and plants introduced 
by him—pigs, goats, rats, rabbits, ferrets, sparrows, and starlings. He entered 
an eloquent plea for an endeavour to protect and preserve the native forms, 
and he claimed that the naturalist alone had the knowledge that should guide 
the efforts to promote the use and prevent the abuse of the animal world. 
Unfortunately, though something has since been done in the direction pointed 
out by him, the indiscriminate slaughter, which he so feelingly deprecated, 
still goes on in various parts of the world. That this subject Jay near to 
Newton’s heart was shown by his returning to it in his admirable article on 
“Extermination ” in the ‘ Dictionary of Birds.’ 
One who contemplated with such keen regret the approaching extermina- 
tion of many remarkable forms of life could not but feel a saddened interest 
in those which have disappeared within the times of human experience. 
Newton was a diligent collector of all the information that could be obtained 
regarding the Dodo. He wrote a number of papers on this subject, and his 
article on it in his ‘ Dictionary’ may be cited as an illustration of the learning 
and the exhaustive treatment with which he could discuss a matter that 
strongly appealed to him. In the same way he devoted himself to tracing out 
all that could be ascertained regarding the haunts of the Great Auk or Gare 
Fowl, so recently exterminated. He published several papers on the subject, 
and one of the objects of his last yachting cruise was to visit the ledge among 
the Orkney Islands, where the bird had its latest British home. 
For many years during the later part of his life Newton had an annual 
opportunity of enjoying pleasant and easy travel, and of visiting some of the 
most crowded haunts of bird life in these islands. His friend, Henry Evans, 
of Derby, also an accomplished ornithologist, gladly welcomed him on board 
his steam yacht and directed her course to any coast or island that the 
