CORRESPONDING SOCIBTIES. 331 
for setting other people to work. He hoped that when the address was 
printed it would come forth in an enlarged form, and be read by all 
the Societies which were represented that day, as well as by those who 
were not. As an instance of the value of employing others, Mr. Dale 
said that his own large collection of prehistoric objects was formed largely 
through his teaching workmen who dig the soil what to look for. He hoped 
that each county in England would be able to find someone who would 
record the earthworks within its borders. He had succeeded in finding 
a worker who was now successfully scheduling those of Hampshire. He 
also said that, although the appointments on the Ancient Monuments 
Commission were not all that could be desired, it was the duty of the local 
societies loyally to assist that body. 
Mr. F. A. Bellamy (Ashmolean N.H. Society of Oxfordshire) seconded 
the vote of thanks. 
Mr. F. Balfour Browne (Belfast Naturalists’ Field Club) was very glad 
that the subject of regional surveys had been raised, but he feared that the 
Chairman expected too much from the amateur. A survey of Lambay Island 
had been made, and another of Clare Island was in progress. Such 
surveys resulted largely in mere lists of species, and it was only the trained 
biologist who could make use of these. The amateur was doing very good 
work as a collector, and as a rule we should not expect more from him. 
Mr. Hopkinson (Hertfordshire Natural History Society) spoke as to the 
importance of surveys, whether geographical or biological, being undertaken 
on a definite plan and by concerted action, and as to the false impressions 
which might arise from one district, be it a county or other division, having 
undergone thorough investigation, while others had been entirely neglected. 
At any time from about the year 1865 to 1890, he said, it might have been 
inferred from the recorded distribution of the Freshwater Rhizopoda in the 
British Isles that they were almost exclusively confined to Ireland; but as 
they have not been investigated there for the last thirty years or more, and 
have been assiduously collected in a few districts in England, Wales, and 
Scotland, Ireland would now have been far behind in the number of its known 
species had not he, in a few days’ collecting in County Wicklow last year 
(September 1908), more than doubled the number hitherto known for the 
whole of the Emerald Isle. 
A more striking instance of the misleading effect of isolated instead of 
concerted effort is that of our knowledge of the Diptera of Hertfordshire. In 
the British Museum there is a collection of about 1,000 species of flies from 
Felden, Boxmoor, not one-quarter of which are known to occur in any other 
part of Hertfordshire. The collection was formed by Mr. Albert Piffard, 
and in it there is only one flea, whilst the Hon. N. Charles Rothschild has 
found thirty species of pulicide at Tring, not one of which, except the Felden 
species (which is not Pulez irritans), has been recorded from any other part 
of the county. The list was published last year in the Transactions of the 
Society he represented, and although he did not think that Hertfordshire was 
particularly troubled with flies in general or with fleas in particular, he 
doubted whether any other county could show nearly so large a list of either. 
In the discussion Dr. G. B. Longstaff, Dr. J. G. Garson, and Mr. H. D. 
Acland also spoke. 
On the motion of the Chairman the meeting passed a hearty vote of 
thanks to the President and Council of the Geological Society for permitting 
the Conference of Delegates to meet in the Society’s rooms. 
The Secretary then read the report of the Corresponding Societies Com- 
mittee to the British Association at Winnipeg. 
The Secretary announced that the Rules of the Association had been 
amended so as to include the Chairman of the Conference of Delegates 
among the ex officio members of the Committee of Recommendations. _ 
Mr. H. D. Acland (Royal Institution of Cornwall), as a matter on which 
