"^■j J ■ ] President's Address. ^79 



asian Ornithologists' Union, and to hold the first general meeting 

 in Adelaide the following year. 



That Melbourne meeting is now historic. There were 21 persons 

 present, and a copy of their signatures and seals is preserved 

 in the first volume of The Emu, the Union's official organ. It 

 is a remarkable coincidence that 21 was the exact number of the 

 founders of the now famous American Ornithologists' Union, started 

 ui 1883. In order to show that the preliminary meeting was 

 thoroughly inter-State, it may be mentioned that Mr. D. M'Alpine, 

 Government Vegetable Pathologist, and several other members of 

 the Field Naturalists' Club of Victoria, were present ; Mr. C. F. 

 Belcher, LL.B., represented the Field Naturalists' Club of Geelong ; 

 Mr. J. W. Mellor, the South Austrahan Ornithological Association ; 

 while apologies were received from the late Sir Malcolm M'Eacharn 

 (Mayor of Melbourne), Mr. C. W. De Vis, M.A. (Oueensland), Mr. 

 S. W. Moore, M.L.A. (New South Wales), Colond W. V. Legge 

 (Tasmania), and others. 



Among other happy circumstances at this time, their Royal 

 Highnesses the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and York (now 

 their Majesties the King and Queen) were visiting the Common- 

 wealth, and graciously bestowed their patronage — the only royal 

 favour of the kind conferred during their Highnesses' Australian 

 tour — on this new national Union, with its simple twin planks : 

 the study and protection of birds. 



A simple code of rules was drawn up — 18 in all — which a coldly 

 critical lawyer has described as somewhat starved ; but there is 

 the compensating balance : the fewer and simpler the rules the 

 less the number of transgressors. 



The first session of the A.O.U. (now •' Royal "). Adelaide, 1901, 

 was a thorough success ; any forebodings of the promoters to the 

 contrary melted away before the enthusiasm and warm reception 

 they received at the hands of the good people of South Australia. 

 The first evening, a lantern lecture, " An Evening with Australian 

 Birds," by Mr. D. Le Souef, C.M.Z.S., was given in the Federal 

 Hall (a very appropriate name by way of a beginning). There 

 was a large and representative audience, including His Excellency 

 Lord Tennyson (then State Governor), Lord Richard Nevill, Sir 

 Samuel Way (Chief Justice) and Lady Way, the Hon. T. H. 

 Brooker (Minister of Agriculture and Education, who kindly oc- 

 cupied the chair), and others. 



The following evening the session settled down to business, and 

 Colonel Legge (Tasmania) delivered the first presidential address. 

 Since, two other annual sessions have been held at Adelaide, and 

 two each at Sydney. Melbourne, and Tasmania. To give details 

 of the meetings would be merely to repeat a progression of successes, 

 which threaten to be outshone by the splendour of this our first 

 session in Brisbane. But I must not omit to mention one most 

 important conference in connection with the last Melbourne session, 

 when Government representatives of the administrators of the 

 various inter-State Game Acts met to consider proposals made by 



