0n0trticti0n of a Jfoturalisf* (laleiibar 

 for 



By MORTON G. STUART, Esq., M.A., P.G.S. 



HE suggestion offered to us by the British Associa- 

 tion on the advisability of collecting information 

 on the periodic flowering of plants, the annual 

 return and departure of migratory birds, and the 

 appearance of certain insects, together with other 

 natural phenomena, presents a wide and fertile 

 field of work, and should result, after the lapse of some years, in 

 some really scientific information regarding the county of Dorset if 

 only we can find individuals patient and willing enough to under- 

 take the collection of facts. In a previous paper I have alluded to 

 the currently received impression that a Field Club is a rather 

 carefully organised picknicking society, and that after the lapse of 

 some years the available sites will all have become exhausted, so 

 that the Society will die out from the creeping on of mere old age. 

 This prospect, however, it is not well for us to entertain, and by 

 endeavouring to place our work on a sounder basis we may hope 

 to counteract it. 



The kind of information to which I now refer viz., the periodical 

 flowering of plants and appearances of birds and insects which is 

 likely in the end to furnish us with some valuable information 



