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PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY. 17 
ANNUAL ADDRESS. 
At the close of our third winter session it is my privilege*to congratulate 
the members of our society on its continued prosperity and increase. The 
attendance at our evening re-unions has been exceedingly encouraging. 
There are many indications of a growing interest felt in the objects of our 
association. Our position is recognised in other towns besides our own. 
Our published transactions have a range wider than the confines of a small 
provincial town. 
Our winter session was introduced by an important and interesting paper 
on ‘‘ Local Museums.’’ ‘The design of that paper was not merely to afford 
a transient gratification which might pass away with the close of the 
evening’s meeting, but to lead to an important and responsible undertaking 
—the establishment of a museum for the town and neighbourhood. Though 
the members of our society could scarcely entertain the project of founding 
and supporting a grand institution by their own unaided resources, yet they 
were ambitious of instituting a movement. which might lead to the formation 
of a nucleus of good things, around which might gather sufficient interest 
and support that would eventually establish a prosperous municipal 
institution. 
Interesting papers on the migration of British birds have engaged our 
attention on two separate evenings. The subject deserves attention. To 
my own mind, the migration of animals remains amongst the unexplained 
mysteries of natural science. It is easy to say that these interesting 
visitants are moved by a law of their nature—that they are under the 
unerring power of instinct, which they are constrained to obey as the con- 
trolling principle of their being. That only shrouds our ignorance, and 
expresses the simple fact in other language. What is instinct? We 
perhaps know what we mean when we use the term. But is it sufficient to 
explain a very wonderful though common occurrence? Instinct may 
constrain a bird when cold weather is approaching to desire a warmer 
climate. So instinct impels a hungry animal to desirefood. But isit instinct 
that enables it to discriminate between food which it likes or dislikes ? 
That is accomplished by it as by us, through the sense of taste. I can 
conceive of the Swallow, influenced by its instincts, feeling uncomfortable 
as the cold days approach. Instinct makes it restless. Instinct makes it 
gather with its fellows into companies. Instinct awakens within an over- 
powering appetency for warmer climates and more genial air, But is 
it instinct, or another sense, of which we are ignorant, that leads them 
towards the same quarter of the globe, that guides them with unerring 
certainty across a wide expanse of ocean, and lands them safe within the 
needed thermal zone. Analogous with the migration of birds, is that peculiar 
power possessed by the carrier pigeon of returning to its home. Far from 
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