4 PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 



larvae of the housefly (Musca domestica) are stated to have 

 lately been found in mid-winter in snails, and this, if confirmed, 

 is a simple explanation. A curious experiment has shewn that 

 if two lights are placed in front of a fly, it will not go directly 

 towards one of them, but in a line just between them. Whether 

 it flew or crawled I do not know, but I should have thought 

 the experiment very difficult to carry out with certainty, as flies 

 by no means always fly straight to a light when there is only 

 one, but often circle round it or indeed go in any direction, in 

 spite of its attraction for them. The gaudy larva of the 

 magpie moth ( Abraxas grossnlariata) is said to be distasteful to 

 birds ; but an observer writes that he has found it in the stomachs 

 of the song thrush, missel thrush, blackbird, great tit, white- 

 throat, house sparrow, yellow bunting and cuckoo. He has 

 also watched it being brought in large numbers to the nestlings 

 of a pair of song thrushes. The Inle Lake is situated at 

 a height of 3,000 feet on the Shan plateau, and has water of a 

 remarkable transparency. A report has lately been issued 

 under the direction of the Zoological Survey of India on its 

 fauna, many of the species being new and of interest from its 

 isolated position. A striking feature of the fish is an unusually 

 large eye, and there is a curious new eel-like animal. The 

 exciting story of a survival in Central Africa of one of the large 

 extinct saurians Brontosaurus has turned out to be a hoax. 

 I remember a friend once describing to me how he had 

 watched for some time from a boat at the bottom of a very 

 clear sea, off the S. African coast, an animal with all the 

 characteristics of the Plesiosaurus. It may have been so; but 

 things in the sea are deceiving, and one would like some con- 

 firmation. Coming to birds, the Report of the Departmental 

 Committee on the Protection of Wild Birds has lately been 

 issued, in which they suggest, amongst other things, the 

 formation of a permanent Ornithological Advisory Committee, 

 which, considering the fact that the Wild Birds' Protection 

 Acts have been administered in England without any expert 

 help, is a great step. The Canadians are doing a good deal in 

 the way of making bird sanctuaries in that country. They 



