Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 3.djvu/21

 and started fresh paradoxes on every possible subject every evening. Newton's own talk, which was most often on birds or on the countries to which he had travelled, was always full, exact, and interesting, and exhibited a pleasant sense of humour. The rooms in which this circle met contained a fine ornithological library, and where the walls were vacant a few pictures of birds, of which the finest was a drawing of gerfalcons by Wolff, the celebrated artist of birds. The accuracy which Newton encouraged in others he required from himself, and for this reason his works often took long to complete. His large book 'Ootheca Wolleyana,' an account of the collection of birds' eggs made by his friend John Wolley, appeared from 1864 to 1902, and contains an interesting biography of the collector. The collection of eggs was given to Newton by Wolley's father, and Newton presented it, with his own large collection, to the University of Cambridge. The 'Dictionary of Birds,' which appeared 1893-6, is probably his greatest work. He had prepared himself for such a book by his 'Ornithology of Iceland,' published in Baring Gould's 'Iceland' in 1863; his 'Aves' in the 'Record of Zoological Literature,' vols, i.-vi.; his 'Birds of Greenland,' printed in the 'Arctic Manual'; and by many papers in the 'Ibis' and other scientific journals. He wrote the article on ornithology in the ninth edition of the 'Encyclopædia Britannica,' and that on Gilbert White in this Dictionary; he edited the 'Ibis' from 1865 to 1870, the 'Zoological Record' from 1870 to 1872, and the first two volumes of the fourth edition of Yarrell's 'British Birds,' 1871-82. He was elected F.R.S. in 1870, and received the royal medal of the society in 1900, and the gold medal of the Linnaean Society in the same year. He used to attend the meetings of the British Association, and it was due to its action, stimulated by him, that the first three acts of parliament for the protection of birds were passed. He was for several years chairman of the committee for studying the migration of birds appointed by that association, and he was constantly referred to by the public and by individual students as the chief authority of his time on ornithology, and always promptly endeavoured to answer the questions put to him. He was one of the founders of the British Ornithologists' Union and was a frequent contributor to its journal, the 'Ibis.' The dodo and the great auk were birds in which he took particular interest, and when his brother, Edward Newton, brought him from Mauritius a fine series of dodo bones Newton generously sent some as a gift to Professor Schlegel of Leyden, who had been one of his chief opponents as regards the columbine affinities of the bird. Towards the end of his life he appointed Mr. William Bateson to lecture for him, but continued to show active interest in all the other work of his professorship, and was always a constant resident during term-time at Cambridge. Throughout his career he took a large part in university affairs, and conducted with his own hand a very heavy public and private correspondence. In his last years some of the fellows of Magdalene thought him too arbitrary in his attachment to simple food and old usages, but outside their microcosm the Johnsonian force with which he expressed his convictions only added to the charm of his society. His final illness was a cardiac failure, and when the Master of Magdalene paid a last visit to him Newton said 'God bless all my friends, God bless the college, and may the study of zoology continue to flourish in this university!' He died unmarried on 7 June 1907. He was buried in the Huntingdon Road cemetery at Cambridge.

His portrait, by Lowes Dickinson, is at Magdalene College, Cambridge.

 NICHOLSON, CHARLES, first baronet (1808–1903), chancellor of the University of Sydney, New South Wales, born at Bedale, Yorkshire, on 23 Nov. 1808, was only surviving child of Charles Nicholson of London, by Barbara, youngest daughter of John Ascough of Bedale. Graduating M.D. at Edinburgh University in 1833, he emigrated to Australia, and settled on some property belonging to his uncle near Sydney in May 1834. Here for some time he practised as a physician with success. A good classical scholar, well read in history and science, an able writer and lucid speaker, he soon prominently identified himself with the social and political interests of the colony. In June 1843 he 