784 BEPOBT— 1893. 



3. Interim Report on a Digest of Observations on the Migration of Birds, 

 at Lighthouses. — See Reports, p. 524. 



4. Report on the Zoology and Botany of the West India Islands. 

 See Reports, p. 524. 



5. Note on the Discovery of Diprctodon Remains in Australia. 

 By Professor W. Stirling. 



6. The following Address, by Rev. H. B. Tkistram, F.R.8., President of the 



Section, loho was not able to attendj the Meeting, was read by Sir W. H. 

 Flower, K.C.B., F.B.S. 



Address : — 



It is difficult for the mind to grasp the advance in biological science (I use the term 

 biology in its wide etymological, not its recently restricted sense) which has taken 

 place since I first attended the meetings of the British Association, some fortv 

 years ago. In those days, the now familiar expressions of ' natural selection,' 

 ' isolation/ ' the struggle for existence,' ' the survival of the fittest,' were unheard of 

 and unknown, though many an observer was busied in culling the facts which 

 were being poured into the lap of the philosopher who should mould the first 

 great epoch in natural science since the days of Linnfeus. 



It is to the importance and value of field observation that I would venture in 

 the first place to direct your attention. 



My predecessors in this chair have been, of recent years, distinguished men who 

 have searched deeply into the abstrusest mysteries of physiology. Thither I do 

 not presume to follow them. I rather come before you as a survivor of the old- 

 world naturalist, as one whose researches have been, not in the laboratory or 

 with the microscope, but on the wide desert, the mountain side, and the isles of 

 the sea. 



This year is the centenary of the death of Gilbert White, whom we may look 

 upon as the father of field naturalists. It is true that Sir T. Browne, WiUughbv, 

 and Ray had each, in the middle of the seventeenth century, committed various ob- 

 servations to print ; but though Willughby, at least, recognised the Importance of 

 the soft parts as well as the osteology, in affording a key to classification, as may 

 be seen from his observation of the peculiar formation, in the Divers (Colymhidce) 

 of the tibia, with its prolonged procnemial process, of which he has given a figure, 

 or his description of the elongation of the posterior branches of the woodpecker's 

 tongue, as well as by his careful description of the intestines of all specimens which 

 came under his notice in the flesh, none of these systematically noted the habits 

 of birds, apart from an occasional mention of their nidification, and very rarely do 

 they even describe the eggs. But White was the first observer to recognise how 

 much may be learnt from the life habits of birds. He is generally content with 

 recording his observations, leaving to others to speculate. Fond of Virgilian 

 quotations (he was a fellow of Oriel of the last century), his quotations are 

 often made with a view to prove the scrupulous accuracy of the Roman poet, as 

 tested by his (White's) own observations. 



In an age, incredulous as to that which appears to break the uniformity of 

 nature, but quick to recognise all the phenomena of life, a contrast arises before the 

 mind's eve between the abiding strength of the objective method, which brings 

 Gilbert White in touch with the great writers whose works are for all time, and 

 the transient feebleness of the modern introspective philosophies, vexed with the 

 problems of psychology. The modern psychologist propounds his theory of man 



