PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 165 
food has facilitated rapid increase and the mice are in 
countless multitudes. The value of birds should not, how- 
ever, be underestimated, and proper protection should be 
afforded to the species particularly useful in this respect. 
K * * 
In conclusion, may I express my deepest thanks to all 
those who have facilitated, in ways many and various, the 
preparation of this address. In every instance my request 
for information or criticism has been granted unreserved- 
ly, immediately and fully. Many gentlemen have gone to a 
large amount of trouble to furnish me with data. Though 
already acknowledged in the text, I should like to repeat 
my appreciation of their assistance, and to mention especi- 
ally the following:—The Honorary Secretaries (Mr. J. H. 
Maiden and Mr. R. H. Cambage) and the Honorary Treas- 
urer (Professor Chapman); Professors Carslaw, Fawsitt, 
and Darnley Naylor; Dr. Armit, Dr. C. N. Paul; Capt. S. 
A. White; and Messrs. C. Hedley, George Valder (Under- 
Secretary for Agriculture), Gerald Lightfoot (Secretary 
Advis. Council of Science and Industry), E. Harris, Heber: 
A. Longman, J. B. Clarke, F. G. England, D. Le Souef, J. 
C. B. Moncrieff, F. W. Gavel, J. G. Stewart, E. A. All- 
ehurch, and C. J. Cameron. 
This, gentlemen, ends a long, somewhat disjointed and 
discursive discourse. If I have aroused interest in our 
rats and mice, if I have called attention to aspects of their 
lives that have much in common with our own, and from 
which we can perhaps learn somewhat, the labour has not 
been in vain. May I close with the beautiful idea ex- 
pressed by Mrs. Browning :— 
“Harth’s crammed with heaven 
And every common bush afire with God: 
But only he who sees, takes off his shoes; 
The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries, 
And daub their natural faces unaware 
More and more from the first similitude.’’ 
