XX111. 



THE ANNUAL BUSINESS MEETING of the Club was held in the Reading Room 

 of the County Museum, Dorchester, on Tuesday, May 8th, 1900, at noon, the 

 President being in the chair. 



It was found on reference that the Rules did not admit of balloting for jew 

 members being conducted at this meeting, as it was by Rule 7 confined to the two 

 " Winter " Meetings. The balloting for four members had therefore to be 

 postponed until December. 



PBESIDENT'S ADDRESS. The President's address, which will be found in the 

 present volume, was delivered and a vote of thanks passed to him, on the pro- 

 position of Captain ELWES, seconded by Rev. O. P. CAMBRIDGE. 



A PAPER " On New and Rare British Spiders" was read by Rev. 0. P. 

 Cambridge, and will be found in full in the present volume. 



FINANCIAL REPORT OF THE HON. TREASURER. The Hon. Treasurer (Rev. O. 

 P. Cambridge) presented the usual Balance Sheet and General Statement of the 

 Club's financial position, which will be found later on in the present Volume. 



REPORT ON THE ADDITIONS TO THE MUSEUM DURING THE PAST YEAR. Mr. 

 H. J. MOULE, the Curator of the County Museum, read the following report : 



"This report, relating to the twelve months since the last annual meeting, 

 cannot be written in a very jubilant tone. As regards money, subscriptions are 

 much needed. As regards the Museum collections, for the most part they have 

 not been much increased. Indeed, it has been suggested that a circular asking 

 for Dorset specimens, using the word in a wide sense, might profitably be dis- 

 tributed throughout the county. Such a step was taken, and with some success, 

 by the Committee of the Albert Museum, Exeter, several years ago. In the 

 natural science department we received from the Rev. S. E. V. Filleul and the 

 Rev. H. P. Williams Freeman three noteworthy birds' nests. From the former 

 came a robin's nest built within the old nest of a song-thrush, and a golden- 

 crested wren's nest 18 inches long. This out-of-the-way form was caused by 

 the material somehow slipping through the tree fork in which the birds built, 

 and their perseveringly adding more to it as it sunk away. At last there was a 

 long tassel of moss and other things, with the actual nest at the top. For at last 

 and at length they got the stuff to settle. The third nest is a thrush's. It is 

 built mainly of pieces of soft twine. The Rev. H. P. W. Freeman's gardener 

 left them in the garden one evening. Next morning, when he wanted them for 

 raspberry-bush tying or some such work, behold they were turned into a nest in 

 an apple tree. Another strange but very different specimen comes from the 

 President. It is an elm root, which in its growth has imprisoned several flints. 

 Mr. M. H. Tilley and Mr. J. A. Pope have given us a curious wasp's nest and a 

 very large puff-ball respectively. The Rev. W. R. Waugh, who in former years 

 has repeatedly enriched the collection of Dorset fossils, has again done so. He 

 has given a Lima gigantca, and a very good Pcctcn from the lower lias. Very 

 few local antiquities have come into our possession of late, save a large collection 

 of worked flints which has been acquired from Mr. Cunnington. These imple- 

 ments, now arranged and labelled, are well worth study. With these flints came 



