262 EEPORT OF FIELD MEETINGS. 



EEPORT OF THE FIELD MEETINGS OF THE NATURAL 

 HISTORY SOCIETY FOR 1904. 



READ 14th march, 1905, BY THE REV. W. McLEAN BROWN, CHAIRMAN 

 OP THE FIELD MEETINGS COMMITTEE, 1904. 



Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen, — Although the position 

 which I have occupied during the past year has been shorn 

 of a great part of the honour which formerly belonged to the 

 President of the Tyneside Naturalists' Field Club, yet my first 

 word must be one of thanks for electing me to the still honour- 

 able position of chairman of the Field Meeting Section of the 

 Natural History Society. Under the new conditions arising 

 from the amalgamation of the Natural History Society and 

 the Tyneside Naturalists' Field Club, the chairman of the 

 Field Section may be considered to be the direct successor to 

 the President of the old Field Club, and thus a certain in- 

 herited honour descends with the position, restricted though it 

 is. Recognising also that it depends a good deal upon how 

 the first occupants of a new position carry out the functions of 

 their office, and what trend they give to it, what its future will 

 be, I desire as the first chairman of the new committee to 

 hand it over to my successor, shorn of none of its inherent 

 possibilities, and with all its inherited honour. Knowing that 

 it is the desire of the Committee that its chairman should, as 

 far as possible, carry on the traditions of the older office of 

 President, I shall do my best to give you a report of the 

 various Field Meetings held during the year 1904. Beyond 

 that I cannot hope to go, for however willing I may be, my 

 qualifications will not permit me to follow in the steps of the 

 honoured Presidents of the old Naturalists' Field Club. 



The First Field Meeting of the year was held at Ravens- 

 worth on the 12th of May; Lord Ravensworth having kindly 

 granted permission to visit the grounds and gardens. The 

 party started from the Central Station at two o'clock, taking 



