Minutes of Proceedings cl 
locust, producing immense broods regularly every year, so that strips of 
veldt are often blackened by the larvee ; and yet, thanks to the birds, 
and in spite of their acrid nauseousness, barely sufficient specimens 
survive to keep up the chain of reproduction. 
But for the existing checks, I am convinced that this part of the 
country, at all events, would in very few years become an uninhabited, 
lifeless waste. 
The absolute preservation of all our birds is thus an imperative 
necessity, and we may safely leave the red locust to them. 
Apart from the greater strength of wing, voracity and wariness, I may 
mention two other peculiarities of the red locust, which make it fortu- 
nate for us that it does not occur in such number as its congener : 
(a) A farmer, if able to raise a thin but continuous fringe of smoke 
to windward, can generally protect his crops against the ordinary 
winged locust, but the red locust either forces his way through the best 
of smoke, or simply rises above and pounces down. 
(b) The ordinary locust is clearly urged on by a migratory instinct, 
which eventually drowns it in the ocean ; it tarries just long enough to 
eat. Not so the red locust; it remains for days in the same locality. 
The destruction it effects is therefore more thorough. 
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING. 
Wednesday, July 31, 1895. 
Mr. R. MAruotu, Ph.D., M.A., President, in the Chair. 
The Reports of the Secretary and Treasurer were read. and adopted. 
The members present then proceeded to the election of a President 
and Council for the ensuing year, with the following result : 
T. Murr, LL.D., M.A., F.R.S.Ed., President. 
H. Bouus, F.L.S. 
G. S. CORSTORPHINE, Ph.D. 
W. H. Finuay, M.A., F.R.A.S. 
Rev. G. H. R. Fisk, C.M.Z.S. 
D. Gitt, LL.D., F.R:S. Members 
R. Maruoru, Ph.D., M.A. of 
L. Périncuey, F.ES., F.Z.S. Council. 
Dr. J. A. Ross 
Hon. C. A. Smiru, M.A. 
T. STEWART, M.Inst.C.E. 
The PRESIDENT then delivered the annual address, on ‘The Progress of 
Natural Science in relation to South Africa during the last Ten Years.’ 
