38 



protection in all directions. The conifers protect themselves by- 

 their narrow leaves and their resm. They, moreover, protect their 

 pollen and protect their seeds. 

 - A hearty vote of thanks was accorded to the lecturer. 



October 8th, 1895. 



The first meeting of the Session was held, the proceedings being 

 opened by a few remarks from the President. Mrs. Eastes and 

 Mr. Walton exhibited beautiful collections of dried plants. Mr-. 

 Hambridge some interesting micro-photographs. Mr. Sawyer 

 and Mr. Hills, microscopical objects. Mr. Dalgliesh, some 

 " Jumping beans," the seed of a Mexican Euphorbia containing the 

 larvae of a moth (Carpocapsa saltitans). 



November 23rd, 1895. 



The Vice-President, Mr. G. C. Walton, in the chair. Fifty- 

 members present. The President read the following paper on 



" THE MIGRATION OF BIEDS. " 



I have chosen for the subject of my paper this evening, the' 

 Itligration of Birds, a vast subject, and one about which there is 

 at this end of the 19tli century more mystery and more ignorance, 

 perhaps, than about any other fact in natural history of at all 

 equal importance. The migration of birds is the habit possessed 

 by a large number of them of passing over a large part of the 

 earth's surface twice a year, at a date more or less fixed for each 

 species, generally from a warmer to a colder climate in the spring 

 time, to breed and spend more or less of the summer, and then 

 from the colder clima,te back to a warmer one, in the autumn, to 

 9pend the winter, so that many of these birds live in more or less 

 perpetual summer. This habit has been observed by mankind for 

 centuries, and the oldest notices with which we are most of us 

 familiar are the passage in the book of Job (xxxix., 26) : " Doth 

 the hawk soar by Thy wisdom, and stretch her wings towards the 

 BOutii? " and the pathetic passage in the book of the Prophe^ 

 Jeremiah viii., 7) : " Yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth her 



