( Ivii ) 



THE PEESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 



Gentlemen, 



At the beginning of my last address I was able to 

 say, without fear of contradiction, that the report of the 

 Council was the most satisfactory that had ever been pre- 

 sented to the Society : I can now, however, say that the report 

 for this year is even better : in spite of losses our numbers 

 are somewhat greater than they were this time last year, and 

 never before in our seventy yeai's' existence as a Society has 

 such a volume of Transactions been published, containing as 

 it does some 800 pages and no less than twenty-eight plates. 

 Notwithstanding our large expenditure we have still a fair 

 balance in hand : our thanks for these results are due to our 

 enei-getic Treasurer, Secretaries, and Librarian : all these 

 officers give up a very large proportion of their spare time 

 to further the interests of the Society, and I should like to 

 see the question of a paid Assistant-Secretary seriously brought 

 forward. After much deliberation on the part of the Council, 

 certain changes in the Bye-laws have recently been submitted 

 to the Society, and adopted with a few alterations ; it is hoped 

 that the amended Bye-laws will meet with the general approval 

 of the Fellows. I should also like to call attention to certain 

 improvements in the index which have been introduced by the 

 Secretaries. 



If we glance at the Transactions and Proceedings of the 

 Society, it is evident that much more good work is being 

 done at other orders beside the Lepidoptera, than used to 

 be the case some few years ago — but we still want many 

 more students of the Diptera. A special featui'e of our Trans- 

 actions for the past year is the multiplication of papers on 

 Life History and Bionomics : this is a great improvement 

 upon the times when I as Secretary used to draw up the 



