PROCEEDINGS 



BERWICKSHIRE NATURALISTS' CLUB. 



Address delivered to the Berwickshire Naturalists' Club, 

 at Berwick, October I9th, 1892. By Thomas Craig- 

 Bjiown, Esq., Provost of Selkirk. 



Gentlemen, 



So much is the presidency of your long- 

 established and successful Club a sinecure — thanks to the 

 all pervading watchfulness and untiring industry of its 

 Secretary — that I confess to having frequently asked myself 

 during the past year if, in my capacity as President, I were 

 not to some extent a sham, or, at the most, a figure head. 

 And I think that I should have been bound to answer that 

 question in the affirmative, had not the duty of delivering 

 the annual valedictory address made me alive to the fact 

 that the office involves at least one responsibility. At the 

 same time, it cannot be said that the prospective task 

 inspires one with alarm, for the courteous and kindly 

 assistance which the President receives during his year of 

 office assures him of a generous interpretation of whatever 

 he may say. One's chief difficulty is the choice of subject, 

 and, if it be true that in the multitude of counsellors there 

 is wisdom, I did what I could to arrive at a wise conclusion. 

 More than one member suggested "Voles," but, seeing I 

 knew no more about these multitudinous vermin than about 

 the Ornithorynchus, and seeing also that the subject was in 

 thoroughly capable hands already, I decided to leave it 



B.N.C. — VOL. XIV. NO. I. B 



