| Seas CORRESPONDING SOCIETIES. 211 
Committee on meteorological photography; the idea was approved, members of 
the Committee were chosen, and I was requested to endeavour to secure the 
appointment of the Committee through Section A. This was done by reading 
a paper on the subject before the Section, the Committee appointed presenting 
ten reports. Its work was eventually restricted to experiments by the Secre- 
tary, Mr. A. W. Clayden, with the object of devising the best meang of 
ascertaining the height of clouds, his method being the taking of photographs 
by two cameras in electric connection at a great distance apart. A collection 
of meteorological photographs of various kinds was also made and presented 
to the Royal Meteorological Society, forming the nucleus of a very fine collection 
of lantern-slides available for lectures. Additions will be welcome. 
Closely related with meteorology, or a branch of it, is phenology — the study 
of the relation between the weather and the dates of flowering of plants, 
arrival and departure of migratory birds, and appearance of insects, and also 
its effect upon our field- and garden-crops. Here again more observers are 
urgently required, for it is only with a very large number of observers that 
we can feel confident that first appearances, whether of flowers, birds, or 
insects, have not been overlooked. Forms for recording may be obtained from 
the Royal Meteorological Society.' 
For Section C, Grotocy, much good work has been done by the Corre- 
sponding Societies, especially for the Committee on Geological Photographs, 
which was formed by the joint action of the Section and the Conference of 
Delegates at the Bath meeting in 1888. The photographs (a very large number) 
are deposited in the Geological Museum in Jermyn Street, where they may be 
seen ; also numerous lantern-slides which are lent for lectures. The Committee 
is still in existence and photographs are acceptable. 
Other important geological subjects which have been brought before our 
Conference are earth-tremors, underground water, and coast-erosion, in the 
investigation of one or other of which all our Corresponding Societies can help. 
The shjects embraced in Section D, Zootocy, are by far the most 
attract’: “ members of our natural history societies, to whom we owe nearly 
all our knowledge of the distribution of animal life in the British Isles, far 
more perhaps of that of the Invertebrata than that of the Vertebrata, about 
which much was known in very early days. It should be the aim of all such 
societies to compile aud publish lists of the animals inhabiting their areas, 
recording their localities, carefully noting their habitats, and studying their 
habits and life-histories. Increasing attention is being paid to our Invertebrate 
fauna, but there is still very much to be done, especially in the collection and 
study of the microscopic forms of life in our rivers, lakes, ponds, and ditches, 
on our stately trees and humble mosses, and even in our soils. Almost every 
tuft of moist moss teems with animal life which will well repay microscopic 
examination. 
There is another aspect of the subject which has frequently been brought 
before us, that is the preservation of our native fauna. In endeavouring to 
prevent the destruction of rare animals or of those approaching extinction all 
may help. We cannot well make sure of the presence of a rare moth or 
butterfly without capturing it, but there is never need to take a large series, 
as is the practice of some entomologists ; with birds and mammals it is different ; 
they can mostly be identified by the practised naturalist without shooting 
them. There are birds, such as the rook and the wood-pigeon, which should 
be reduced in number, as they are so destructive to our field- and garden-crops, 
but such birds as hawks and owls, which are persecuted by gamekeepers, are 
our farmers’ best friends, and their extermination ought not to be allowed. The 
same may be said of all insectivorous birds. Hawks may occasionally kill a 
partridge or even a pheasant, the beautiful kingfisher may take a few fish, but 
the food of the owls, with the exception of a few rare species such as the eagle 
owl and the snowy owl, consists almost entirely of small rodents.* With regard 
* Copies of a list with instructions, printed for the Hertfordshire Natural 
History Society, were distributed. 
? "Taken out of a barn-owl’s tree at Keswick in Norfolk in April, 1911, were 
114 ‘pellets’ ccntaining the skulls of 10 very small rats, 126 long- and short- 
tailed field-mice, 69 shrews, and 3 small birds (perhaps greenfinches), but no game. 
P2 
