167 
account of tbe General anb annual flDeetings. 
The following accounts have been compiled by the Acting- 
Secretary, but the Reports are due to the Reporting Secretary, 
Mr. J. T. Kemp, M.A., whose summary appeared in the local 
Press after each meeting. 
THE 52ND ANNUAL MEETING. 
January 21st, 1915. 
The Council and Officers for the year were elected, Miss 
Ida M. Roper being the President for the third time, and Dr. 
O. V. Darbishire the Hon. Secretary. 
Exhibits were shown by Mrs. H. E. Matthews, Geaster 
fimbriatus ; Miss Roper, Viola odor at a var. proecox ; Mr. A. T. 
Davies, nodules on Thuja. 
Miss Roper then delivered her second Presidential address 
entitled " The Permanency in the Growth of Plants." 
(N.B. — The address is printed in full in the Proceedings for 
1914). 
THE 446TH GENERAL MEETING. 
February 4th, 1915. 
" Mr. Eliot Howard's Observations on British Warblers," 
by Prof. C. Lloyd Morgan, LL.D., F.R.S., F.G.S. 
These observations, published in book form, were the outcome 
of the hobby of a man of commerce, and threw a new light on 
the habits of these migrants. He describes how the males 
arrive first, some fortnight before the females, and establishes 
a territory free from rivals, but not the same each year. This 
effected, amidst much singing and fighting, there is a period of 
courtship on the arrival of the females, filled in by flapping of 
wings, fighting other males but with less singing, the whole 
seeming to be watched only a little by the females. It appears 
that similar movements are made by the different birds, vary- 
ing according to its species, on any occasion of great excitement, 
as in fighting or courting, or in anger or fear, due to inherited 
instincts from natural selection. Such activities, however, are, 
it is admitted, difficult to account for, though they appear to be 
as distinctive as are form and colour and habits of nest building. 
The warblers have their own characteristic song, but con- 
stantly introduce into it imitations of many other birds without 
any apparent purpose. 
Many lantern slides were shown to illustrate appearance and 
habits. 
