Alfred Newton - Encyclopedia

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES

ALFRED NEWTON (1829-1907), English zoologist, was born at Geneva on the 11th of June 1829. In 185 4 he was elected travelling fellow of Magdalene College, Cambridge, of which he had been an undergraduate, and subsequently visited many parts of the world, including Lapland, Iceland, Spitsbergen, the West Indies and North America. In 1866 he became the first professor of zoology and comparative anatomy at Cambridge, a position which he retained till his death. His services to ornithology and zoogeography were recognized by the Royal Society in 1900, when it awarded him a Royal medal. He wrote many books, including Zoology of Ancient Europe (1862), Ootheca Wolleyana (begun in 1864), Zoology (1872), and a Dictionary of Birds (1893-1896). The last, still a standard work, was an amplification of the numerous articles on birds which he contributed to the 9th edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, and which with comparatively slight revision are retained in the present edition. He contributed many memoirs to scientific societies, and edited The Ibis (1865-1870), the Zoological Record (1870-1872), and Yarrell's British Birds (1871-1882). He died at Cambridge on the 7th of June 1907.