I.— THE HIRUNDINES. 



By Mr A. B. HERBERT, President. 



{Read Oct. 26, 1883.) 



I PROPOSE, at this our first indoor meeting for the season, to submit 

 to you a few remarks on our Hirundines ; but before doing so, I 

 should like to say a little on the position and prospects of the Club, 

 — and in these there is indeed much cause for congratulation. You 

 will learn from the Secretary that, as regards the number of our 

 members, the net gain is an accession of thirty -six in the past year; 

 and I hope and believe this is not our only gain, but that our intel- 

 lectual is commensurate with our numerical acquisition, and that 

 among our new members will be found many from whom we may 

 derive valuable information, and to whom Ave may also look for 

 instructive and interesting papers. The field of Natural History is, 

 we all know, most extensive — indeed Ave might say almost unlimited ; 

 and there are many branches we should be glad to see more fully 

 investigated. We need not confine ourselves to Eotany, Geology, and 

 Ornithology. We have made a commencement in Entomology, and 

 there we have a grand field for observation ; and I see no reason why 

 wo should not have papers on the mammalia of the country, and also 

 on the fishes, molluscs, and reptiles. Again, in microscopical research 

 where shall we find a limit 1 Let us indeed consider nothing in 

 nature uuAvorthy of our investigation ; for what it pleased an all-wise 

 and benevolent Creator to form, cannot be beneath His intelligent 

 creatures to inspect and elucidate. Perhaps I cannot give a more apt 

 illustration of what I mean than by mentioning a most despised 

 insect, the common Wasp. Our first and only thought, when we see 

 one in our rooms, is to destroy it — and perhaps we are right ; but Ave 

 may learn something even from a Wasp. Who can tell for how many 

 centuries these insects Avere paper-makers, and, moreover, from wood 

 pulp, before the Scandinavians started their pulp-factories 1 And I am 

 disposed to think that if the latter had paid more close attention to 

 the operations of the insects, they would have avoided some early 

 errors in their manufacture, and have had less sawdust and more 

 fibre; for just listen for a few moments to what a writer 130 years 

 ago says of the modus operandi of these insects : — 



" Big and short pieces of wood like sawdust would not suit ; it is necessary 

 to ha\'e a sort of tliread, and in getting such we must notice the sagacity of 

 the Wasp. She doth not merely hash the wood, which would give her saw- 

 dust ; but before she cuts it she makes a sort of scraped lint ; she presses the 

 VOL. I. I 



