31 



One paragraph in the Report may, to members not fully 

 conversant with all the facts, convey the impression of a 

 considerable defection of members during the year ; but the 

 numbers reported as struck off had practically ceased to be 

 members for some 3'ears. The Bye-laws direct the Council to 

 expunge the names of members whose subscriptions are three 

 years in arrear ; but the Council, in applying this instruction 

 is careful to do so in the best interests of the Society — taking 

 into consideration the circumstances of each case so far as 

 they can be ascertained, and never losing a member if a little 

 patience and friendl}- intervention will secure him. There 

 comes a point, however, beyond which failure to strike off 

 defaulters would be contempt of the Bye-laws and a betrayal 

 of the trust reposed in the Council by the general body of 

 members. From many years' experience on the Council I 

 can say that I have never known the bye- law to have been 

 applied with anything approaching harshness. 



The season, as you all know too well, has been an 

 exceptionally bad one for collectors ; it is, therefore, a 

 matter for congratulation that the British Fauna Lists have 

 been enlarged by nearly a score of species. There are many 

 naturalists who are of opinion that the fauna and flora of 

 these islands have been worked out, and that one must go 

 abroad for new fields of discovery. The steady addition 

 yearly to the insect lists, however, shows that this is certainly 

 not the case among invertebrates, and this j-ear we have had 

 a notable addition to our known species of British vertebrates 

 in the identification by Mr. F. Pickard-Cambridge of the 

 Giant Goby {Gobins capita) as an indigenous fish. This case 

 is particularly interesting to me, because Mr. Pickard- 

 Cambridge's discovery was made in the very rock-pools at 

 Portscatho where I had collected and studied for several 

 years. I, indeed, feel that his identification carries with it a 

 considerable amount of reproach to myself, for I know the 

 fish very well, and ought to have distinguished it years ago. 

 The truth is, so far as fishes are concerned I was chiefl}- 

 working with the aid of Couch's " British Fishes," where 

 this species is actually figured, but under the name of Gobio 

 iiigcr. Couch describes G. niger as attaining a length of nine 

 or ten inches, and so I never questioned his accuracy, but as 

 a matter of fact the true G. niger does not exceed five inches. 

 G. capito was never recorded except from the Mediterranean 

 until Mr, G. A, Boulenger found it on the Breton coast in 

 i8gg. His suggestion then that it might turn up on the 

 Cornish coast led Mr. Pickard-Cambridge to search for it in 



