THE ANNUAL MEETING 135 
The Rev. R. Ashington Bullen seconded, and the motion 
was agreed to. 
Mr. E. A. Martin, F.G.S., said he had given notice of three 
amendments to the revised rules which were adopted at ^he 
meeting held three months ago, and he had done so because he 
considered that the decisions then arrived at were not allowable 
under their constitution. They had individually no notice given 
them of the amendments to the rules that were being introduced, 
and it was possible that members were not present at the meet- 
ing which adopted the new rules who might otherwise have 
attended. He would not have taken the step he was now taking 
if it had not been for the fact that the objects of the Society had 
been altered. As over a thousand or more members joined the 
Society when it had certain objects in view, he held that in the 
absence of something approaching a referendum it was not 
within the power of the Council to alter these objects. Per- 
sonally, he had been working in support of them for twelve years, 
and many members had probably done the same for longer, and 
it was not right that the Council should effect any alteration 
without having first obtained permission from every one who 
had joined under the old conditions. There was, he thought, 
a great danger of the Society developing into a purely Nature- 
Study Society. Nature study was an excellent thing, but there 
were plenty of societies which studied natural history, and 
sometimes from a very cruel point of view. As they stood out 
distinct from everybody else in wishing to protect Nature as 
well as to eliminate the illimitable collection of objects, they 
should make a stern stand against anything that would do away 
with the great aim of the Society, viz., the protection of Nature 
from spoliation. Rule 2 set forth the objects of the Society as 
passed three months ago. Formerly their fourth and final object 
was the study of natural history, and now it was put at the head 
of the list. He wanted to see it relegated to the position it 
held before, and therefore he proposed that that object, as in 
the former rules, be placed at the bottom of the list. 
The amendment was not seconded and therefore fell to the 
ground. 
Mr. Martin said his second amendment dealt with object C. 
As it formerly stood this rule was to discourage the wearing 
and use for ornament of birds and their plumage, except when 
the birds were killed for food or reared for their plumage, but 
at the last meeting the words, “or are known to be injurious,” 
were added. He believed that a good many Members felt as 
he did, that the introduction of these words was a great mistake ; 
there was such a variety of opinions as to what birds were in- 
jurious and what were not. The introduction of the words he 
complained of was an early step in the tendency of the Society 
to go the wrong way and reduce itself from a protective Society 
to one that would be merely a Natural History Society. In this 
they differed from all other societies, and he therefore moved 
the omission of the words, “ or are known to be injurious.” 
