CORRESPONDING SOCIETIES. 43 



information only. He thought that Mr. Leo Grinclon was himself largely 

 responsible for the eradication of rare plants around Manchester, as he 

 had published a volume called ' Walks about Manchester ' in which their 

 habitats were described. 



Mr. Coates (Perthshire) said their naturalists' field club, in publish- 

 ing accounts of excursions or notices in papers of rare plants, only indicated 

 generally where these were to be found ; and Mr. W. Gray said that the 

 Belfast Naturahsts' Field Club acted in a similar way. 



As regards the extermination of native plants, Canon Tristram added 

 that the neighbourhood of Durham was once one of the richest botanical 

 districts in the north of England, but that during his lifetime some of the 

 most interesting species of plants, and also some of the most interesting- 

 species of butterflies and moths, had been exterminated. The ' lady's 

 slipper' had disappeared. He had seen advertisements in the 'Gardener's 

 Chronicle ' offering half a guinea for that plant, the advertisement 

 always stating where it was supposed to be obtainable. The late 

 Rowland Burton had remarked to him that the half-dozen plants of 

 ' lady's slipper ' on his property cost him more to protect them than his 

 pheasants did. The butterfly, Erebia hlancliva, was no longer to be found 

 in the county of Durham. The rarer orchids and the hart's-tongue fern 

 were being exterminated in many districts, but public opinion had been 

 thoroughly efiicient in the preservation of the ferns planted close to the 

 walks on the banks of the river at Durham, and he looked to the formation 

 of a public opinion as the best means of preserving plants elsewhere. 

 Field clubs should make their members feel that their first object was to 

 preserve, not to destroy. 



Mr. Mark Stirrup said that the preservation of rarities was enjoined 

 by the Manchester societies. As regards the observations of Mr. Sower- 

 butts, he did not think the plants mentioned were such as the dealers 

 prized. 



Preservation of Wild Birds' Eggs. — The Rev. E. P. Knubley (Leeds) 

 moved the following resolution, which was seconded by Mr. E. B. 

 Poulton (Oxford) and agreed to: — 



' The Conference of Delegates, having heard of the threatened extermi- 

 nation of certain birds, as British breeding species, through the destruction 

 of their eggs, deprecates the encouragement given to dealers by collectors 

 through their demands for British-taken eggs, and trusts that the 

 Corresponding Societies will do all that lies in their power to interest and 

 influence naturalists, landowners, and others in the preservation of such 

 birds and their eggs.' 



On this subject Canon Tristram also spoke, and put in a strong plea 

 for the preservation of birds of prey, pointing to the case of the mice 

 plague in Dumfries and Lanark shires as a result of destroying the 

 balance of nature by wholesale killing of birds of prey. The resolution 

 brought forward by Mr. KnuVdey was cordially adopted by the meeting. 



Local Muse^tms. — The Rev. Canon Tristram (Durham) next addressed 

 the delegates on the question of making their field clubs more useful. 

 He strongly advocated that these clubs should combine natural history, 

 archfeology, and geology ; and that their function should be, not to 

 destroy, but to preserve all that was rare and curious in a district. 

 Lately their field excursions in many places had been too much of picnic 

 parties. On the subject of local museums, the Canon argued that, as a 

 rule, these should only contain objects of local interest, and he suggested 



