( Ixui ) 



One memorable incident that has occurred during the past 

 year has been the visit of the Officers and Council of the 

 Society to Oxford at the invitation of the Hope Professor of 

 Zoology. It gives me great pleasure to acknowledge the 

 kindness with which we were received by all Members of the 

 University with whom we came into contact. The Yice- 

 Chancellor was only prevented by another pressing engage- 

 ment from participating personally in our reception, but he 

 showed his appreciation of our visit by extending the 

 hospitality of his house to your President. The various 

 specialists among our Councillors who were present on this 

 occasion must have noted with satisfaction the improvement 

 in accommodation and the great progress that has been 

 effected in the arrangement of the collections since Prof. 

 Poulton came into office. If, as my friend the Hope 

 Professor intimates, this visitation is to become an annual 

 institution, I can only rejoice that a movement calculated to 

 be of great benefit to our Society, as well as to the Hope 

 Museum, should have been inaugurated during my occupancy 

 of this chair. 



Many papers, both of general and of special importance, 

 have appeared in our 180G volume of " Transactions." I may 

 mention, among the subjects of particular interest to myself, 

 the very valuable contribution to the theory of the 

 development of mimetic pattern by Dr. Dixey, Prof. Poulton's 

 observations on the courtship of AcriiUidtr, and Dr. Chap- 

 man's papers on Lepidopterous pupfe. One very lengthy 

 systematic paper on the Diptera of St. Vincent, by Profs. 

 Williston and Aldrich, communicated by Dr. Sharp, occupies 

 practically the whole of Part III., and would, I am afraid, 

 have been beyond our resources had we not received a grant 

 from the Royal Society for defraying the cost of its 

 publication. 



In resigning the honourable duties which I have been called 

 upon to discharge during the last two years, I cannot but feel 

 how largely I am indebted to the Officers who so ungrudgingly 

 devote their time to the interests of the Society. It is with 

 considerable regret that we must accept the simultaneous 

 withdrawal of both Secretaries. These g^entlemen have served 



