412 MEMOIR OF THE LATE SIR EDWARD NEWTON, M.A., K.C.M.G. 
of that Island till 1883. During this latter period his official 
work was so heavy that it left him little time to follow out his 
favourite pursuit, but he never missed an opportunity of helping 
forward the science of Ornithology, whether by his own researches, 
or by the assistance which his official position enabled him to render 
to others. Hard work and the effects of climate broke down his 
health, and in 1882 he was compelled to return to England ; and in 
1883, much to his regret, to retire from the service in which he had 
greatly distinguished himself, and in which his prospects of pro-, 
motion were so bright. In 1887 he was promoted to K.C.M.G. 
It is not my intention to give an extended list of Sir Edward 
Newton’s scientific papers or of his services to ornithological science, 
but rather to dwell on his connection with ourselves, and to recall 
his kindly presence when acting in 1887 — 8 as President of our 
Society, and the valuable Address on the Birds of the Mascarene 
Islands with which he enriched its ‘ Transactions.’ So late as 
30th of March, 1897, the writer, in the company of the two brothers, 
whose life-long attachment seemed if possible to increase with the 
failing health of the younger, visited the spot where they had 
together seen a Swift, on the remarkably early date of the 26th of 
that month, and he little thought the keen interest displayed by 
Sir Edward in every incident of the drive was so soon to end,, and 
that the day so delightfully spent in his genial society would be 
the last ho would be privileged so to pass. 
I cannot do better than to conclude with the tribute paid to 
the memory of Sir Edward Newton by an old and valued friend 
(Canon Tristram), to which I can add nothing but my heartfelt 
accord : “ Eor the last five years his health was perceptibly declining. 
Yet, though always more or less of an invalid, his interest in the 
pursuits of his more vigorous days never flagged . . The 
unselfish modesty which marked all his natural-history work was 
equally conspicuous in his daily life. His whole nature was the 
very opposite of self-asserting. There was a delightful charm in 
the simplicity and genuineness of the man, which won the hearts 
of all who knew him well ; and looking back on a friendship of 
forty years, the writer can but feel it to have been a high privilege 
to have known one in whose character were blended all the 
qualities that go to make the careful, truthful naturalist, and the 
refined Christian gentleman ” (‘Ibis,’ 1897, p. 479). — T. S. 
