i57 



PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 



"the economic value of birds to the state." 



By Robert Patterson, F.L.S., M.R.I. A., M.B.O.U. 



The opening address was given on Tuesday, 17th November, 

 before a very large audience. The President said : — The subject 

 I have taken for the opening address of the Forty-sixth Winter 

 Session of the Club is one which has been greatly overlooked in 

 Great Britain. The reason is not, perhaps, far to seek. We are 

 all too apt to notice only the obvious, the striking things ; we 

 remember the great storm ; dates are counted from " the year of 

 the big flood," or "the big wind"; while we forget the gentle 

 breezes that bring the summer birds to us, or that caused the 

 willows to be fertilized ; we forget the light rains and the soft dews 

 that are absolutely necessary if life is to continue on the globe. 

 To take a somewhat local instance ; we remember the noise and 

 shouting of the blatant street-preacher, while the quiet and 

 practical worker among the slums is unknown or overlooked. It 

 is only quite lately, within the lifetime of the youngest of us, that 

 we have begun to realize it is the small, trivial, apparently weak 

 things that really count with us in our lives ; that we can no 

 longer afford to despise our enemies because they are small, or 

 because a single one could do little harm. Perhaps, in the public 

 mind, the most striking as well as the most recent proof of this 

 will be associated with the work of Major Ross. To take one 

 instance near home ; the total population of Greece is only 

 about 2]/ 2 millions, yet in 1905, nearly one million Greeks were 

 attacked with malaria, and nearly 6,ooo died. Malaria is due to 

 multitudes of minute animal parasites of the blood ; how do they 

 get into the blood ? Through the bite of a gnat similar to the 

 gnats and mosquitoes we know in this country. This important 

 discovery was made in 189S by Major Ross, and gnats at once 



