Letters, Extracts, and Notes. 391 



The Minutes of tlie last Annual General Meeting were 

 read and confirmed. 



The Secretary read the following^ Report of the Committee 

 for the past j'ear : — 



''The Committee regret that they have to report a further 

 decrease in the funds of the Union during the past year. 

 The accounts, which have been audited in detail by Mr. D. 

 Seth-Smith, show that the total receipts in 1914 were 

 £731 4iS. \Qd. as compared with £608 G*. 7d. in the 

 previous year, and the total payments amounted to £811 

 13s. 7d. as against £634 9^. 8c?, in 1913. The balance 

 carried forward to 1915 was £32 10s. 7d. 



" The great increase in receipts is chiefly due to the sales 

 of ' The Ibis' for the final quarter of 1913 not having been 

 received until too late for inclusion in the balance-sheet for 

 that year ; consequently the sales receipts ior five quarters 

 appear in 191 1< and only three in the previous year, and the 

 increase thus caused amounted to £92 13s. 9c?. 



" On the payments side, for the same reason, there is 

 included the payments for the cost of distribution of ' The 

 Ibis ' for five quarters in 1914, as against three only in 

 1913, but the outstanding expenditure, amounting to nearly 

 £200, was on account of the new List of British Birds, 

 and the General Index now in course of publication. The 

 greater part of the cost of these two works, however, has 

 yet to be paid, and will place the finances of the Union 

 in a very critical position. 



"The increase in the cost of ' The Ibis ' volume for 1914 

 is only apparent, as the cost of distribution in 1913, as stated 

 above, only represented three of the four quarterly parts. 



"The Annual Volume of 'The Ibis' for 1914, edited by 

 Mr. W. L. Sclater, is the fifty-sixth, and the second of the 

 tenth series. It contains Q77 pages, and is illustrated with 

 8 coloured and 18 black-and-white plates and 8 text-figures. 



" With regret the Committee report the deaths of Mr. C. 

 A. Ball and Lieut. K. Y. Meiklejohn since the last Annual 

 General Meeting. 



