Annual Meeting. 3 



Auditor, a satisfactory balance remains after paying all expenses. 

 This, however, it must be borne in mind, results from the 

 thoughtful generosity of the local committee of the British 

 Association, who decided to pay to the Society the balance of 

 the general fund raised for last year's meeting. 



Mainly as a result of the suggestions made by Professor 

 Gregg Wilson in his lecture on ' Recent Fishery Research ' on 

 2nd December, a meeting of representatives of our own Society, 

 the Belfast Naturalists' Field Club, and the Queen's College 

 was convened by your Secretary on the 16th December to 

 consider the advisability of the establishment of a marine 

 biological laboratory. As a result the Ulster Fisheries and 

 Biology Association has been established, with Mr. Robert 

 Patterson, M.R.I.A., F.Z.S., as its Honorary Secretary and 

 Treasurer. Already good work has been done, and much 

 interest aroused for its future welfare. 



The natural history collections in the Museum have received 

 a great amount of attention during the year, and the much- 

 needed work of revision and rearrangement has to a large 

 extent been carried out by a number of volunteer experts. 

 The Irish fossils, which form a large and valuable series, have 

 been taken off the old tablets and remounted on a new system 

 by Mr. W. Swanston, and now make a most effective display. 

 The important, set of County Down graptolites is not yet in 

 place, but is being renamed and classified by Professor Lapworth 

 and will then form a standard collection of the Irish species of 

 these ancient fossils. 



The collections representing Irish vertebrate zoology have 

 been taken in hand effectively by Mr. Robert Patterson. Old 

 and imperfect specimens have been replaced, and those retained 

 carefully cleaned, adding much to the brightness and attractive- 

 ness of the rooms. Seven drawers of birds' eggs have been 

 classified and mounted on the modern system by Messrs. Nevin 

 H. Foster and John Cottney. Many clutches of eggs, hitherto 

 absent or imperfectly represented, have been added, and there 

 is now a complete series of the eggs of Irish nesting birds. 



