2 
president’s address. 
evening that we must be getting on, or Old Time would leave us 
in the lurch. This plethora of papers is the best possible proof 
that our Society is full of vitality, and not at all likely to die 
of inanition, of which lingering malady learned societies do 
sometimes die, even in old Norwich itself, sad to say. To do 
justice to all these various papers in my short annual address, 
time will not permit, even if I had the ability to do so. I can but 
briefly allude to the more important of them, recalling each of 
them to your mind, and thus, perhaps, enabling you to form some 
general conception of the annual labours of the Society as a whole. 
In doing so, it will be more convenient, if, instead of delineating 
the papers in their chronological order, I arrange them in groups 
corresponding to their subject matter. 
In the month of January Mr. Geoffrey T. Buxton exhibited two 
splendid heads of the Wild Sheep of Sardinia, Ovis musivion, or 
Moufflon, which lie shot last year on that island. It appears the 
ignorant natives are doing their best to exterminate these fine 
animals ; but as they have been successfully introduced into 
Hungary, where their economic virtues are more appreciated than 
in their island home, Mr. Buxton thinks their complete extinction 
will probably be averted. 
The papers on Ornithology were, naturally, the most numerous, 
and provoked the most animated discussions. Begrets have 
sometimes been expressed that ornithology should monopolise so 
large a portion of the time and attention of the Society ; but this 
is more or less inevitable in a maritime county like ours, with its 
numerous inland lakes. So far from being a source of regret, it 
appears to me, we ought to congratulate ourselves upon having so 
many zealous and eminent ornithologists in our midst, ever ready to 
avail themselves of the local advantages they enjoy. After all, too, 
there is a certain fascination about the study of these feathered 
songsters, which will always make ornithology the most popular 
branch of natural history. As in past years, so in the present 
year, we are indebted to Mr. J. H. Gurney, -Tun., for several 
interesting papers on birds. Ilis narrative of a visit to the Fame 
Islands, hired by Mr. Barclay for the protection of the birds that 
