REPORT OF THE COUNCIL 28 1 



matter of great regret to the Council if the printing of the 

 Transactions had to be suspended for lack of funds. 



As usual, a syllabus of lectures and "museum talks" was 

 arranged for the winter months, and the best thanks of the 

 Society are due to those who prepared and delivered the six 

 ordinary lectures and the two lectures for young people. The 

 average attendance may be considered distinctly good : for 

 the ordinary lectures it was 74 and for the children's lectures 

 105. The attendance at the Curator's "museum talks" shows 

 a falling off — it is to be hoped merely temporary — to an 

 average of 44. At the suggestion of some of the members 

 who regularly attend the field meetings, the experiment was 

 tried during the winter of holding a few informal meetings at 

 the Museum for the discussion and illustration of practical 

 work in different branches. This was tried only in a tentative 

 way, but with results that were distinctly encouraging. 



One part of the Society's Transactions has been published 

 during the year. It forms the much-delayed conclusion of 

 the old series, and also completes the catalogue of local 

 Lepidoptera by the late John E. Robson. The author's death 

 occurred just as the first sheet of this concluding part was 

 going through the press, and Mr. Eustace R. Bankes, the 

 well-known entomologist who kindly undertook to edit the 

 remainder, was eventually obliged by ill-health to abandon it. 

 Finally Mr. John Gardner was persuaded to take it in hand, 

 which he was well qualified to do, as he has studied the local 

 Micro-lepidoptera more thoroughly than anyone else and was 

 himself responsible for a large part of the records. He was 

 assisted by Mr. C. O. Trechmann, who also prepared the 

 index. The indebtedness of the Society to both of these 

 gentlemen has been expressed to them by the Council. A 

 very useful piece of work, the preparation of a general index 

 to the whole of the last series of Transactions, has now also 

 been brought to a conclusion. The separate indexes for the 

 volumes were prepared by various members, and the work of 

 combining them into a general index has been carried out 

 almost entirely by Mr. George Sisson. He has also very 

 kindly had a copy typed and bound for immediate use. 



