46 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. XXV. 



years of membership of this Club, its memories, and what I have 

 gained from it 



*' From early boyhood I had always taken a keen interest in 

 all matters pertaining to natural history, and any book or news- 

 paper article on my favourite hobby was perused with avidity. 

 No holiday spent at town sports furnished half the pleasure 

 derived from a ramble in the forest or along the course of a river, 

 where I could study the habits of our native fauna, examine nests, 

 collect eggs, or capture mammals, birds, or reptiles in order to 

 make pets of them, afterwards visiting the Museum to find out 

 their proper names. 



" This unsatisfactory style of working continued until the year 

 1886, when I one day saw a paragraph in the Age, giving an 

 account of a meeting of the Field NaturaHsts' Club. I determined 

 to try and find out some of the members of the society, in order 

 to learn from them the best method of pursuing my study, and 

 to ascertain what works to read for guidance. I told my 

 difficulty to the late Mr. W. Elliott, the then horticultural editor 

 of the Leader, who at once said that a friend of his, Mr. Chas. 

 French, would kindly propose me as a member. 



" Although I gladly availed myself of the offer, I attended the 

 next meeting (early in 1886) with very serious misgivings, and 

 walked past the gate of this hall twice before mustering up 

 courage to enter. I was afraid that I should meet a number 

 of learned scientists, who would soon make it apparent that my 

 room was preferable to my company. However, when once 

 inside the room I found myself amongst an extremely sociable 

 body of ladies and gentlemen, all of whom readily answered my 

 questions ; and I am afraid some of those questions appeared 

 very simple. 



" At that time the Rev. J. J. Halley was president, and, as I 

 had learnt many years before that he was a keen ornithologist, 

 I soon entered into conversation with him. In those days the 

 late Mr. H. Watts talked about microscopical matters ; Mr. 

 F. G. A. Barnard about botany and entomology ; Mr. D. Best, 

 coleoptera ; Messrs. Forbes-Leith, A. J. Campbell, Robert Hall, 

 W. Hatton, J. T. Gillespie, C. French, jun., W. Macgillivray, 

 E. D'Ombrain, and others, ornithology ; Mr. S. H. VVintle, 

 geology, and so on ; and I started home from my first meeting 

 with a fixed determination to study all branches of natural history. 

 However, after attending a few meetings and excursions, I learnt 

 how vast was the contract I had undertaken, and decided to 

 devote my attention to one branch, ornithology, which had 

 always occupied the chief share of my thoughts, and therefore 

 studied Gould's ' Handbook ' until I could quote largely from 

 its pages. 



" In conversation with the gentlemen previously mentioned, 



