272 The Scottish Naturalist. 



thus altering my first proposal, and now suggesting a Society 

 instead of an Agency, are — 



1. By forming a Society a capital for the purposes required, 

 and to be hereafter mentioned, may be secured, which a Company 

 or an Agency composed of a limited number of individuals 

 might find difficulty in raising or would scarcely like to risk. 



2. No steps would require to be taken towards the work of 

 the Society until a sufficient number of members were secured, 

 representing a sufficient capital for printing and republishing a 

 smaller or greater number of pamphlets and tracts on Natural 

 History. 



3. The actual work of an Agency, after the Society becomes 

 firmly established (if ever it be established), might be incorpor- 

 ated with the other business of the Society, and this at less 

 probable expense and risk than if undertaken by an Agency 

 acting without the ready capital which would be furnished by an 

 unlimited number of members and subscribers. 



I may here also take the opportunity to remark that the Ray 

 Society has succeeded far beyond the expectations of its original 

 founders, and has had an uninterrupted and useful existence for 

 more than 30 years. It may be urged by some people who read 

 my proposition that while the Ray Society flourishes there is no 

 room for another having similar objects and ends in view. But 

 in answer to this I would say, there is no need for the new 

 Society aspiring to a competition with the old and firmly founded 

 one, or interfering with the latter's business, and this for the 

 following reasons : — 



1. In a list of the publications of the " Ray Society" now 

 before me there are only two works treating of Vertebrata, and 

 of these one refers to Reptilia — " The Reptiles of British India" 

 (by Dr. Giinther)— and the other to Ptcrylography (by Nitsch). 



2. Of a list of volumes in preparation for future years there is 

 only one out of ten, unless we except " A Synopsis of the Fauna 

 and Flora of Palestine," by Rev. H. B. Tristram, which will treat 

 of Vertebrata. 



3. Therefore it would appear that the large body of the 

 members of the Ray Society, or at all events of the publishing- 

 committee, are students of Invertebrata, or — from the number 

 of botanical works — students of botany; and that therefore there 

 is room and to spare for a Society which would direct its atten- 

 tion principally to the Vertebrata. 



4. The Ray Society does not appear to devote its attention 



