Sir Edward Newton (10 November 1832 – 25 April 1897) was a British colonial administrator and

ornithologist Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the "methodological study and consequent knowledge of birds with all that relates to them." Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and th ...

. He was born at

Elveden Hall Elveden Hall is a large stately home on the Elveden Estate in Elveden, Suffolk, England. The seat of the Earls of Iveagh, it is a Grade II* listed building. It is located centrally to the village and is close to the A11 and the Parish Church. Curr ...

, Suffolk the sixth and youngest son of William Newton, MP. He was the brother of ornithologist

Alfred Newton Alfred Newton FRS HFRSE (11 June 18297 June 1907) was an English zoologist and ornithologist. Newton was Professor of Comparative Anatomy at Cambridge University from 1866 to 1907. Among his numerous publications were a four-volume ''Dictionar ...

. He graduated from Magdelene College, Cambridge in 1857 and was one of the twenty founding members of the British Ornithologists' Union. Newton was the Colonial Secretary for

Mauritius Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label=Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It incl ...

from 1859 to 1877. From there he sent his brother a number of specimens, including the

dodo The dodo (''Raphus cucullatus'') is an extinct flightless bird that was endemic to the island of Mauritius, which is east of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean. The dodo's closest genetic relative was the also-extinct Rodrigues solitaire. The ...

and the

Rodrigues solitaire The Rodrigues solitaire (''Pezophaps solitaria'') is an extinct flightless bird that was endemic to the island of Rodrigues, east of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean. Genetically within the family of pigeons and doves, it was most closely relate ...

, both already extinct. In 1878, Newton initiated the first laws anywhere specifically designed to protect indigenous land birds from persecution. Edward was later Colonial Secretary and Lieutenant-Governor of

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

(1877–1883). He married Mary Louisa Cranstoun, daughter of W.W.R. Kerr in 1869. She died the following year. He is commemorated in the binomial of the Malagasy kestrel, ''Falco newtoni''. ''

Phelsuma edwardnewtoni The Rodrigues day gecko (''Phelsuma edwardnewtoni''), also known Common name, commonly as the Rodrigues blue-dotted day gecko, is an extinct species of day gecko, a lizard in the Family (biology), family Gekkonidae. The species was Endemism, ende ...

'', a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

gecko Geckos are small, mostly carnivorous lizards that have a wide distribution, found on every continent except Antarctica. Belonging to the infraorder Gekkota, geckos are found in warm climates throughout the world. They range from . Geckos ar ...

, is named in his honor. Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . ("Edward Newton", p. 80).

Bibliography

* * (with five plates) was translated into French in 1894

References

1832 births 1897 deaths People from Elveden British ornithologists Colonial Administrative Service officers British Mauritius people Zoological collectors Colonial Secretaries of Jamaica {{Mauritius-politician-stub