Presidential Address. 33 



follmv, we surely appreciate, but more usually desire, observations 

 by our predecessors in l;hat particular study to help us on our way. 

 I desire to point out the utility of notes, observations, diaries, 

 whatever you like to call them, of the simple, daily phenomena 

 of to-day. Such observations may seem invaluable at the 

 present: they will be invaluable (but in another sense) a hundred 

 years hence. Think how the old " Household Book of the 

 Percy's " teems with interest to us in this year of grace, 1909. 

 There is no reason to suppose that the household book of the 

 modern housewife will be any less interesting 500 years hence. It 

 would be intensely gratifying to the antiquary to find descriptions 

 of certain monuments or buildings in their prime three or four 

 hundred years ago, now obliterated or obscured by the ravages of 

 time. What would not the zoologist give to have accurate details 

 anent the fauna inhabiting Britain, say in the sixteenth century ? 

 Just as we feel the lack of such information to-day, so we should 

 see that those who come after us have no similar cause of com- 

 plaint. There is plenty of work still to be done both indoors and 

 outdoors, and in Dumfriesshire and Galloway within easy reach of 

 all of us. Before speaking of my own hobby, I will instance as a 

 desideratum a hand list of the Bibliography relative to the shires 

 of Dumfries, Kirkcudbright, and Wigtown. Here an opportunity 

 offers itself to some painstaking individual which will gain for him 

 the thanks of all students of our local affairs. 



As regards ornithology, the Science which above all others 

 claims me as a devotee, there is plenty yet to be done. For 

 example, the question of migration is as yet in its infancy. The 

 investigation into this subject by means of marking birds by rings 

 is now being tried by several important bodies, and is one in which 

 the co-operation of our members might usefully be enlisted. The 

 editor of the " British Birds Magazine," Mr H. F. Witherby, may 

 be regarded as one of the pioneers in this research. This year he 

 distributed some 4750 rings, the most interesting recovery being 

 that of ring No. 4308, which was returned from Corcubian, in 

 the north-west corner of Spain, having been placed on a 3-oung 

 Common Tern in Cumberland on July 30th of the same year. 

 There can be no doubt but that this system of ringing will answer 

 many questions now awaiting solution, as to the migration of 

 birds. It is to be hoped that in the future more information 

 may be obtained locally, of such species as the White Wagtail, 



