( Ixxxi ) 



was somewhat clianged. It is no secret tliat a crisis lias again 

 arisen in the history of the Reco''cl. I am not in a position to 

 state witli certainty, but I have reason to hope a plan for its con- 

 tinuance has been decided upon this day.* 



The third charmel of reference in order of priority is the 

 ZooLOGiSGHEH Jahresbericht, issued under the auspices of the 

 Zoological Station at Naples. It commenced with the literature 

 for 1879, and continues. In Entomology each order has practically 

 a separate recorder, who is usually a specialist. A notable feature 

 is the detailed information for Anatomy, Physiology, and Palae- 

 ontology, which are recorded apart from the ordinal position of 

 the subjects from which the observations have been made, a plan 

 not without its advantages. Everything that emanates from the 

 Naples Zoological Station is exhaustive. 



Let us picture to ourselves the benighted condition of entomo- 

 logists before such keys to reference existed, and let us imagine 

 how much synonymy (the plague of succeeding students) might 

 have been avoided had they existed I But the greater the help 

 the greater the responsibility. 



A Chapter of an Autobiography. 



As concluding my Address, I give you a very brief chapter of 

 an otherwise unwritten Autobiography. I do so at the request 

 of a scientific friend to whom many of the details are already 

 familiar. The chapter indicates why my studies eventually took 

 a certain definite direction, and the history of my case may 

 probably find an echo in that of many of my hearers, differences 

 in incident always excepted. 



In early childhood I was located some ten or twelve miles from 

 Loudon on the borders of what was then Hainault Forest, where 

 I remained until fifteen years of age. There could scarcely 

 have been a better position near London for arousing the latent 

 instincts of a born naturalist. These instincts once aroused took 

 a general form, and embraced the whole ' Systema Naturae.' The 

 Forest afforded unusual facilities for ornithological observations, 

 and entire holidays were spent watching the London birdcatchers 

 who frequented the locality, and from them I gleaned much 



* The ' Zoological iiecord ' will be coutinued by the Zoological Society 

 of Loiulon. 



