78 



ship I should regard a rising attendance as wholly to counter- 

 balance a shrinking membership — a state of affairs that, 

 fortunately, we need not anticipate. 



We published a volume of 149 pages for the past year, 

 which is about the average size of our " Proceedings,'^ but 

 there are also no fewer than thirteen plates dispersed through 

 the letterpress. Plates, provided the}' are good, always add 

 greatly to the value of printed matter. That the plates are 

 good I think everybody will agree, and we are largely 

 indebted to those members, who are so skilful with their 

 cameras, for providing the first-rate negatives for repro^ 

 duction. Let us hope this feature of the " Proceedings" for 

 igog-igio will continue. Previous to this year we never had 

 more than five plates, which was the number for igo8, but 

 in many earlier issues there was not a single one. 



The Society must have felt very gratified during the past 

 year at the large representation it has had on the Council of 

 the Entomological Society of London. No fewer than six out 

 of the ten members of council were active members of our 

 own Society, while we could also claim a vice-president, 

 Mr. Rowland-Brown, as one of us. 



The year has not been a very satisfactory one as regards 

 our field meetings. That the meetings were spoilt by the 

 weather- — a matter over which we, unfortunately, have no 

 control — is true to a very large extent. I fear, however, that 

 there are some who hold the idea that one can obtain more 

 in the way of sport by a private pilgrimage to the haunts of 

 this or that rarity. This may be true, but the field meeting, 

 if it does anything, brings one into closer contact with kin- 

 dred spirits, with whom an exchange of views is sometimes 

 of the greatest benefit to both parties. To those who hold 

 the former view I would say, " Do not always look upon the 

 field meeting as only a day for collecting, and altogether a 

 failure if you have not taken anything that you wanted as a 

 desideratum for your collection." There is always some- 

 thing to be learnt, even from our commonest species, and it 

 frequently happens that we acquire pieces of information 

 regarding this or that species when we least expect it. If 

 we are really and deeply interested in nature study we can 

 say with the immortal Shakespeare: "Age cannot wither, 

 nor custom stale, her infinite variet}'." 



I hope in the coming season that our out-of-door meetings 

 will be supported in the way they deserve, and that meteor- 

 ology will harmonize better with entomology. 



As the years roll by, entomologists, whose names we have 



