6 PEOCEEDIXGS OF THE 



its district, not far from Ealing, which had long been known as 

 an abiding place for birds. The immediate object was to preserve 

 the nightingales ; and a small Committee was formed to approach 

 the tenant of the farm on which the wood was situated with a 

 view to the appointment of a watcher. Ultimately, the Com- 

 mittee appointed its own keeper, took over the wood from the 

 farmer, and now rents it direct from the owners. 



Xo very rare birds occur in the wood, but it is important 

 in the neighbourhood of large towns to give to the commoner 

 kinds an opportunity of nesting undisturbed. Forty-one species 

 have been recorded as breeding in the wood, thirty-nine of them 

 during recent years. Among these may be mentioned the 

 nightingale, lesser whitethroat, the blackcap, garden warbler, 

 chiffchaff, willow-warbler, long-tailed tit, marsh-tit, tree-creeper, 

 hawfinch, goldfinch, redpoll, nuthatch, wryneck, cuckoo, red- 

 backed shrike, turtle-dove, and wild duck. Including the winter 

 migrants and occasional visitors, eighty-eight species have been 

 observed in or close to the wood. Of these, the golden-crested 

 wren, all the thr^e British woodpeckers, the nightjar, the brown 

 owl, the barn owl, the snipe, and the kingfisher are seen commonly 

 or from time to time. Owing to the introduction of nesting- 

 boxes, several species have increased in numbers or have been 

 induced to nest. 



]Mr. Webb exhibited lantern-slides of nests, and described the 

 experiments made with regard to the ])roYision of nesting-sites. 



Mr. Miller Christv, Mr. T. A. Dymes, Mr. A. H. Maude. 

 Mr. C. E. Salmon, the Eev. T. E. E. Stabbing, Mr. J. C. Shen- 

 stone, and the President contributed further remarks, Mr. Webb 

 replying. 



Dr. 0. Staff, Sec.L.S., read a letter addressed by Dr. Tokutaro 

 Ito. P.L.S., of Tokyo, to Lady Hooker, in which he informs her 

 that Sir Jose|)h Dalton Hooker " has been recently selected by 

 the contemporaries in Japau, as one of the Twenty-nine Heroes 

 of the World that Modern Time has produced." 



January 21st, 1915. 



Prof. E. B. PouLTOx, E.E.S., President, in the Chair. 



The Minutes of the General Meeting of the 17th December, 

 1914, were read and confirmed. 



Mr. Eichard Cranfield Wren was admitted a Fellow. 



Phra Vanpruk Picharn, Mr. Madabusi Srinivasa Eamaswami, 

 M.A. fCalc), and Mr. Henry Edmund Charles Campbell Wintle, 

 were elected Fellows. 



