Charles Burton was an Irish astronomer who, in 1880, was among the first to provide observational support for Schiaparelli's claims of linear markings on the martian surface. By May 1882, however, a few months before his death, his confidence in the reality of the canals had waned: "I strongly incline to the opinion expressed by Messrs. Green and Maunder, that they are boundaries of differently tinted districts ..."