410 MEMOIR OF THE LATE SIR EDWARD NEWTON, M.A., K.C.M.G. 
list, beside not a few foreign species. A most useful series of 
papers in ‘The Zoologist,’ vols. v., vi., and vii., giving the date of 
arrival and of the first egg laid by seventy-four species of Migrants, 
contributed by the brothers A. and E. Newton, will show not only 
how diligently they must have worked in the years 1847, 1848, 
and 1849, but also how thoroughly they were acquainted with the 
birds found at Elveden, and their skill in discovering their nests. 
About this time, too', the idea of forming a much more comprehen- 
sive register of Natural History phenomena was first entertained 
and actually commenced on the 1st of January, 1850, it was con- 
tinued for ten years, and has been summarised, and a specimen page 
of the actual form of register given in a paper “On a Method 
of Registering Natural History Observations,” contributed by 
Professor Newton to our ‘Transactions’ in 1870. This register 
far exceeded in completeness anything of the sort which had 
preceded it, and resulted in some interesting and unexpected 
disclosures. 
It was through his talks with warreners and shepherds that the 
idea first occurred to Edward Newton, of collecting from them 
information as to the former abundance and the circumstances 
attending the extinction of certain former inhabitants of the heaths 
and fens, and with their accustomed energy the two brothers set to 
work to interview and commit to writing the recollections of these 
men who had spent long lives on the spot. The difficulty of obtain- 
ing such information (as all know who have attempted it), and the 
care and time which had to be bestowed upon it were great ; but 
Professor Newton tells me his brother was unequalled in the skill 
with which he extracted from such witnesses all they knew, and 
the result was a vast amount of valuable first-hand information 
with regard to the former abundance of Bitterns and Harriers in 
the fens, and reliable materials for a history of the extinction of 
the Bustard in Norfolk and Suffolk, by which the article on that 
bird in Mr. Stevenson’s ‘ Birds of Norfolk ’ was greatly enriched. 
The first of these “ conversations ” committed to paper was in 
July, 1851, although this was by no means the first which had 
taken place, and the great flood in the year 1852 — 3 turned 
their attention to the desirability of making similar investigations 
in the fen district. 
These investigations foreshadowed the still more valuable 
researches which Edward Newton carried on with such marked 
