president's address. 15 



among the children at their lunches, and show little fear of those 

 who, a few years ago, would have been their natural enemies. 



A significant sign of the improvement in the public point of 

 view in this matter, is the frequent discussions in the press, both 

 daily and weekly, of the value or harmfulness of birds. We find 

 nowadays, a great many people who will even say a good word 

 for the once universally detested Crow. It is recognised that, 

 black though he may be, he is by no means so black as he is 

 painted. And it is beginning to be generally understood that, 

 as Mr. W. W. Froggatt pointed out many years ago, a bird may be 

 very destructive in one locality, and extremely useful in another. 

 In the matter of official protection of birds, we are veiy far 

 behindhand. The Act gives a long list of protected birds, under 

 the scientific names. The police, who are charged with the ad- 

 ministration of the Act, have not the necessary knowledge of the 

 birds. The remedy would be an Act which listed the birds 

 which might be shot, a suggestion which we also owe to Mr. 

 Froggatt. 



One method of encouraging the birds — the provision of nest- 

 ing-boxes — does not meet with a great deal of success. Our 

 native birds do not take to these. In both England and America, 

 the providing of such boxes is much resorted to. There are 

 many firms which make a specialty of manufacturing them, and 

 the birds respond by using them freely. But here, we find that, 

 as a rule, the only tenants are the sparrow and the starling. It 

 may be that Australia's being so recently settled, the birds have 

 not reached that stage of sophistication which would lead them 

 to see the advantages of such shelter. 



All this is a matter for congratulation to such Societies as 

 ours. The plants and animals offer numberless, unsolved prob- 

 lems to the biologist, and their pi-eservation is, therefore, a 

 matter of grave concern. And, in Australia, it is of very great 

 importance on account of the unique characters of the fauna and 

 flora. We are oflfered numbers of biological problems for in- 

 vestigation, which from the nature of our fauna and flora, are of 

 compelling interest. Yet it is a lamentable fact that not very 



