Alfred N ewton's contribution to ornithology: a conservative quest for facts rather than grand theories

Alfred N ewton (1829–1907) was a founding member of the B ritish O rnithologists’ U nion, served as editor of The I bis , and became one of the best‐known B ritish ornithologists of the nineteenth‐century. Between 1855 and 1864 he travelled in E urope and N orth A merica, making a trip to I celand in 1858 with J ohn W olley in search of information about the G reat A uk Pinguinus impennis . In 1866 N ewton obtained the chair of Z oology and C omparative Z oology at the U niversity of C ambridge, where he remained for rest of his career. An unenthusiastic teacher, N ewton nevertheless encouraged successive generations of young ornithologists through the soirées he held in his college rooms. Newton published extensively, but his most significant publication was the D ictionary of B irds (1896). Newton's death marked the beginning of the end of a long period in which scientific ornithology comprised little more than taxonomy and nomenclature, although Newton was also instrumental in initiating conservation legislation. Extremely conservative in most aspects of his life, N ewton was nevertheless the first ornithologist to appreciate the significance of natural selection. He therefore constitutes an important figure in an era of ornithology that immediately precedes the current interest in field ornithology.