6 PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 



interesting pamphlet has lately been published by the British 

 Museum (Nat. Hist.) including methods of capture. Full-grown 

 rats are difficult to trap, but I have been very successful by my 

 plan which I described in one of my early Addresses to our 

 Club, of making them slightly inebriated with rum and sugar 

 before they take the bait. We may think ourselves in any 

 case more fortunate than the S. Africans who are said to have 

 24 species of rats, one reaching the length of two feet without 

 counting the tail. It may not however be generally realized 

 that our common rat is about 18 inches long (including of 

 course the tail) when full grown. The birth of a chimpanzee 

 in the New York Zoological Gardens is only the second event 

 of the kind that has taken place in confinement, the other 

 being at Cuba in 1915. The baby weighed 31bs. and was 16in. 

 long but only lived a few days. The protection of the fur 

 seals of Alaska for five years has had most satisfactory results, the 

 seals having greatly increased in numbers, whereas many fur 

 animals are threatened with extermination. The mammalian 

 fauna in Australia suffers much from foxes, from the poisoning 

 of rabbits, from cats, and from bush fires and other causes 

 which are reducing it very seriously and are perhaps more 

 difficult to control than even fur hunters. On the other hand 

 efforts are being made to set apart as a reservation for pre- 

 serving the fauna, the Oketinoke swamp in Georgia, covering 

 700 square miles, in which the animals are suffering from the 

 effects of drainage and cultivation. Something may perhaps 

 be said on the utilitarian side, but probably this swamp which 

 appears to be in many respects of unique character, could be 

 spared for at least a few generations. 



BOTANY AND AGRICULTURE. 



A novel and very useful and interesting exhibition was held 

 in London last summer of many hundreds of different kinds 

 of wood from various parts of the British Empire, many being 

 practically unknown in this country and of great value for their 

 strength, permanence, beauty or other qualities. Even Indian 

 woods seem little known or used here and African still less, 



