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protection in all directions. The conifers protect themselves by 
fheir narrow leaves and their resin. They, moreover, protect their 
pollen and protect their seeds. 
> A hearty vote of thanks was accorded to the lecturer. 
Ocroser 8th, 1895. 
_ The first meeting of the Session was held, the proceedings being 
opened by a few remarks from the President. Mrs. Eastes and 
Mr. Walton exhibited beautiful collections of dried plants. Mr: 
Hambridge some interesting micro-photographs. Mr. Sawyer 
and Mr. Hills, microscopical objects. Mr. Dalgliesh, some 
‘‘ Jumping beans,”’ the seed of a Mexican Euphorbia containing the 
larvee of a moth (Carpocapsa saltitans). 
Novemper 28rd, 1895. 
- The Vice-President, Mr. G. C. Walton, in the chair. Fifty 
members present. The President read the following paper on 
“THE MIGRATION OF BIRDS.” 
- [have chosen for the subject of my paper this evening, the 
Migration of Birds, a vast subject, and one about which there is. 
at this end of the 19th century more mystery and more ignorance;. 
perhaps, than about any other fact in natural history of at all 
equal importance. - The migration of birds is the habit possessed 
by a large number of them of passing over a large part of the 
earth’s surface twice a year, at a date more or less fixed for each 
species, generally from a warmer to a colder climate in the spring 
time, to breed and spend more or less of the summer, and then 
from the colder climate back to a warmer one, in the autumn, to 
spend the winter, so that many of these birds live in more or less 
perpetual summer. This habit has been observed by mankind for 
centuries, and the oldest notices with which we are most of us 
familiar are the passage in the book of Job (xxxix., 26): ‘‘ Doth 
the hawk soar by Thy wisdom, and stretch her wings towards the 
south?” and the pathetic passage in the book of the Prophet 
Jeremiah viii., 7): ‘Yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth her 
