PRESIDENT S ADDRESS. XC1X. 



feathers, which would be probable on account of their nesting in 

 hollow trees. 



In an address to the Scottish Natural History Society, 

 Professor Schafer has developed the theory that the object 

 of the migration of birds from south to north is that they 

 may have during the breeding season a longer period of 

 daylight in which to hunt for food. The habit has been 

 developed by natural selection. This appears to be a possible 

 solution of this obscure subject, but his reasons cannot here be 

 considered. 



In Africa a living specimen of the okapi, a young colt, has 

 been seen by a European, and photographs were exhibited at the 

 last British Association meeting ; whilst in America an attempt is 

 being made to establish the bison in the Wichita reservation in 

 Kansas, where it once roamed in countless numbers, from the 

 herd confined injhe Zoological Park in New York. The wild 

 existence of this animal seems to be practically at an end. 

 Another vanishing species is the Californian sea-elephant, of 

 which two fine specimens have just been set up in the British 

 Museum of Natural History. A suggestion as to the origin of 

 the common domestic striped tabby cat is given by the fact that 

 this is the form assumed by a litter of kittens bred from a male 

 wild cat (Felis sylvestrh} and a female Egyptian wild cat (Felis 

 ocreata) in the Zoological Gardens. 



A method has been proposed by Galton for classifying portraits 

 by defining in each six cardinal points, so that they can be 

 lexiconised for reference. Thus it can easily be ascertained by 

 the police whether a portrait agreeing with that of a fresh 

 prisoner is contained in their collection, and a long and difficult 

 investigation avoided. He states that on one day 27 officers 

 searched for 27 prisoners in their books of photographs and 

 made seven identifications, the whole time occupied being 57^ 

 hours. This could have been done by his system in as many 

 minutes. The subject of nomenclature has always been a most 

 troublesome one, owing to the perpetual alteration, on one 

 pretence or another, of the names of plants and animals ; it is, 



