STUDY OF PHENOLOGICAL PHENOMENA IN AUSTEALIA. 1 69 



and no doubt in time valuable data will be accumulated 

 from this source (Papers 05/2070 and 80/4192). 



Appendix. 



Mr. H. A. Hunt, Commonwealth Meteorologist, Mel- 

 bourne, to whom the above paper was submitted, writes 

 as follows concerning it. In regard to the suggestion as 

 to communicating with entomologists and ornithologists, 

 the present paper is entirely preliminary in character, and 

 it is hoped that it may reach observers who deal with the 

 subjects named: — 

 "Department of Home Affairs, Meteorological Bureau, 



Central Office, Melbourne, 23rd August, 1909. 



" Dear Mr. Maiden, — It is very kind indeed of you to accord 

 me the privilege of perusing your paper entitled C A Plea for the 

 Study of Phenological Phenomena in Australia.' I hail with 

 pleasure any effort that will induce the residents of Australia to 

 take this matter up and record systematically the seasonal 

 peculiarities of plant, insect, and bird life. After all, these 

 phenomena are in some respects a truer index of the character of 

 the season, they are the result of a complexity of elements that 

 go to make climate and which results cannot adequately be gauged 

 by the mere tabulation and discussion of figures of the few elements 

 of which we only have instrumental records. 



" These are often found contradictory when compared with 

 animal and cereal statistics. The cause of these contradictions is 

 probably due to factors that we know operate, such as insolation, 

 ionization, etc., for which we have no satisfactory means of 

 acquiring knowledge on an extended scale, and probably also to a 

 number of unknown influences, the character of which will only 

 be brought to light by a systematic study of phenological pecu- 

 liarities of seasons. 



"At the inception of the Commonwealth Meteorological Service 

 I invited our esteemed observers, who now number some 5,000, 

 to include any phenological phenomena with their ordinary 



