Vol. xxiii.] 88 



At the conclusion o£ the conjoint dinner of the B. O. U. 

 and B. O. C, the President of the British Ornithologists' 

 Union proposed the health of His Majesty the King and 

 that of "Ahsent Ibises/' as is customary at the Annua 

 Dinner. He then vacated the Chair in favour of Dr. P. L. 

 ScLATER, who, as Chairman of the B. 0. C, conducted the 

 business during the remainder of the evening. 



The Rev. D. Edmondes Owen and Mr. A. Gwynne 

 Vaughan, who had been specially invited to attend the 

 Meeting as guests of the Club, gave an account of the 

 efforts which are being made to protect the Kite [Milvus 

 ictinus) in Wales. 



The Rev. D. Edmondes Owen commenced by giving an 

 interesting sketch of the life-history of certain animals, 

 which, though once common in Wales, had now either 

 .vanished or were rapidly disappearing. Of these the Bear, 

 Wolf, Wild Cattle, Marten, and Wild Cat were mentioned, 

 while the Badger was reported to be still exceptionally 

 numerous in the counties of Brecon and Radnor. 



The Buzzard {Buteo vulgaris) now only merited the name 

 of " common " in Mid-Wales. In a parallelogram with 

 Glandovey, Knighton, Brecon, and Lampeter as its four 

 corners there were no less than 60 or 70 pairs of this 

 magnificent bird. A few years ago it was fast disappearing, 

 but at the present time it was holding its own, thanks to the 

 interest now taken in the rarer Welsh birds as a direct 

 outcome of the Kite-protection movement. 



The Raven (Corvus corax) was also very common in 

 the same locality, and would no doubt continue to thrive 

 there long after it had disappeared from less favoured 

 counties. 



Mr. Owen tnen made the following remarks : — 

 " The question that naturally suggests itself is, what 

 makes Mid-Wales the home of these vanishing species? 

 One would naturally expect them to choose the high and 

 rugged mountains of Carnarvon and Merioneth. But when 

 we realize that sheep and ponies depasture the hills of 



