168 



The Canadian Field-Naturalist 



[Vol. XXXVI 



part of September it is nearly or quite absent or 

 else very quiet. In late September and October 

 it is in e\ndence again. Towards evening they 

 call to each other with a soft mellow whistle but 

 there is no true song in the fall. 



89 Playjeslicus migratorius. American Robin 

 — Tolerably common summer resident. In full 

 song throughout the summer. Late in September 

 Robins gather in the clearings with the Bluebirds. 



90. Sialia sialis Eastern Bluebird.— Blue- 



birds do not appear in any great numbers in spring 

 or summer but occur in loose flocks of several 

 hundred individuals in September. They are 

 generally silent and spend much of their time 

 passing along in a desultory way, following the 

 line of open stumpy clearings. They perch on the 

 stumps, fly down into the grass for insects and 

 return to their perches to devour the catch. The 

 only note I have heard at this season is the usual 

 plaintive "dee-dee." 



SOME INTER-RELATIONSHIPS OF BOTANY AND THE SISTER SCIENCES 

 Vancouver Natural History Society Presidential Address 



By Prof. John Davidson, F.L.S., F.B.S.E. 



AS I look back to our first meeting some four 

 or five years ago, when about 60 ladies and 

 gentlemen gathered in this room to estab- 

 lish a Natural History Society, and when I think 

 of the size of our present membership, and the 

 enthusiasm displayed by the attendance of large 

 numbers of active members at our summer excur- 

 sions and annual camp, it tends to emphasize the 

 responsibility and the honor of the position to 

 which you have elected me. I trust that the en- 

 thusiasm and fine spirit of fellowship and co-opera- 

 tion which characterized our summer work will be 

 maintained and augmented during the winter, so 

 that we may enlarge the scope, and increase the 

 usefulness of the Society as a factor in the uplift 

 and enlightenment of those with whom we come in 

 contact; for it cannot be denied that the study of 

 any phase of God's work must have an elevating 

 influence on the minds of those who participate in 

 it. 



The subject of my address, "Some Interrela- 

 tionships of Botany and the Sister Sciences," might 

 have proved more attractive to some of our mem- 

 bers had I omitted the word Botany from the 

 title, but as I never call a spade a spoon I refrained 

 from using the higher sounding term Phytology, 

 knowing that many of our members would not 

 recognize this modern synonym for Botany. 



I do regret, however, that, to some people, the 

 word Botany should act like a red rag to a bull. 

 The mere mention of the subject almost infuriates 

 them; it arouses recollections of hard and un- 

 interesting work, of long strings of unintelligible 

 terms; they detest it; they hate it. I know this 

 to be true; high school students have told me, and 

 tf achcrs have admitted it. 



I have no fault to find with those people; 1 am 

 sorry for them, they have my sincere sympathy; 

 ihf y have been misinformed and misled by out-of- 



date instructors, and it arouses intense indignation 

 within me to think that so many people have been 

 deprived of much real pleasure and enjoyment 

 through the fact that, during their school days, 

 they were unfortunate in being placed under 

 unqualified or incompetent teachers. 



The Botany of to-day is no longer the Botany 

 of the 16th or 17th century; though some teachers 

 continue to give the old, obsolete Botany, and do 

 not know it; yet they wonder why their pupils 

 make such a poor showing at the examinations. 

 Those teachers probably do not realize that the 

 subject is evolving, that new discoveries shed more 

 light than was available in the dark ages, revealing 

 new problems and sending old ideas into the 

 shadows of oblivion. 



Dependence of Animals on Plants 



The botanist of today is essentially a biologist. 

 He is studying life, and all the factors which in any 

 way influence or affect the life of the plant. He 

 recognizes the absolute dependence of the Animal 

 Kingdom on food manufactured by plants. It is 

 therefore of considerable importance to us that 

 we should know something of the vital processes 

 which enable us to maintain and enjoy our lives. 

 On the success or failure of the vegetable kingdom 

 depends the success or failure of the animal king- 

 dom. The distribution of big game in Canada is 

 closely related to the distribution of the plants on 

 which the animals feed, and so with the distribu- 

 tion of birds and insects. To illustrate this: 

 During the gale of 1894 many thousands of trees 

 in the forests in the North of Scotland were blown 

 down; so many that it took several years to clean 

 up the forests again. This devastation was 

 followed by the visits of several birds which 

 previously had not been recorded for that region, 

 and as these new comers were insectivorous birds 

 it was . observed that they were feeding on the 



