XV.



Report of the Council.



REPORT OF THE COUNCIL FOR THE YEAR


' 9 ° 3 - 4 -


Iii presenting the tenth annual volume of the Avicultural

Magazine, the second of the new series, it is with much satis¬

faction, mingled with a feeling of relief, that we are able to

announce that, in spite of many difficulties, the high standard

attained in the last volume, lias been maintained in the present

one.


It was found that the funds of the Society did not admit

of our giving a coloured plate with each monthly number,

unless we reduced the quality of the illustrations, which we

considered most undesirable. We have therefore issued eight

coloured plates, and all have been of the highest quality. Our

artists, Messrs. Gronvold and Goodchild, have admirably

accomplished the work entrusted to them.


Besides the coloured plates several good black and white

ones have been published, and no monthly number has been

without at least one good plate, coloured or otherwise. Messrs.

Newman and Meade-Waldo very kindly defrayed the entire

cost of the plates which accompanied their respective articles

in the April and July numbers.


As regards the coloured plates for the next volume, we

have invited members to suggest suitable subjects, and several

good suggestions have been received, which are being carefully

considered by the Executive Committee.


Some sixty new members have joined the Society this

year, and our membership is now above four hundred; so that

in spite of some having deserted us, we may say that our Society

is very flourishing.


This year we have had the pleasure of electing as an

Honorary Member Dr. F. DuCane Godman, D.C.L., F.R.S.,

F.Z.S., &c., President of the British Ornithologist’s Union, whose

devotion to ornithology is well known.


New members have joined us from India, the Argentine

Republic, New Zealand, and other distant parts, so that our



