Alfred Newton partridge. Birds became an abiding interest. Those included the great bustard ("Otis tarda"), Montagu's harrier ("Circus pygargus"), ravens, buzzards ("Buteo" sp.), redpolls, wrynecks ("Jynx"), which are small woodpeckers that specialise in feeding on ants. "The vast warrens of the 'Breck', the woods and water-meadows of the valley of the Little Ouse, and the neighbouring Fenland made an ideal training-ground for a naturalist". This enthusiasm Newton shared with his younger brother Edward: the two carried out bird observation when they were together and corresponded when they were apart. In 1846 Newton went to a tutor in Biggleswade for a few months,
Otis Norcross great-great grandfather of Otis Norcross, Jr., both of whom served as schoolteachers in the early Watertown colony ("see family tree below"). This Norcross blood-line extends further in perpetuity with Otis Norcross' great grandfather Peter Norcross (1710–1777) whose younger brother William Norcross (1715 – "ca". 1775), and his wife Lydia [Wheeler] (married 6 Nov. 1741), are the great, great grandparents of Otis' third cousin once removed American poet, Emily Dickinson; daughter of Emily [Norcross] and Edward Dickinson; granddaughter of Joel Norcross and Betsey [Fay]; and great granddaughter of William and Sarah [Marsh] Norcross. During the American Revolution, the Norcross family "served