62 
NATURE NOTES 
The Birmingham and Midland Branch. — We have re- 
ceived the Annual Report and Statement of Accounts of this 
Branch for 1904, and they are certainly very satisfactory. Two 
lectures have been delivered and three excursions made during 
the year : the membership, which exceeds a hundred, has been 
increased, though only by three: the management has been most 
economical and the Treasurer has a substantial balance in hand. 
Nevertheless so large and so populous a district ought to yield 
many more supporters for our Society ; and no doubt its action 
with regard to Warley Woods will attract more Birmingham 
residents to the Branch. 
Whitgift’s Hospital. — Mr. W. Whitaker, B.A., F.R.S., 
Vice-President of our Society and President of the Croydon 
Antiquities Protection Committee, will deliver a lecture on 
Whitgift’s Hospital and its architectural importance, illustrated 
by a number of lantern-slides, before the City of London College 
Science Society, at the College, in White Street, Moorfields, on 
Friday, April 14, at 8 p.m. The Chair will be taken by Pro- 
fessor Boulger, President of the Science Society, Editor of 
Nature Notes. Visitors are cordially invited. 
International Ornithological Congress. — The Fourth 
International Ornithological Congress is to be held in London, 
mainly at the Imperial Institute, between the 12th and 21st 
of June inclusive, under the presidency of our Vice-President, 
Dr. Bowdler Sharpe. The Congress proper, an excursion to 
Tring and a reception at the Mansion House, are arranged for the 
first week, Woburn, Cambridge and Flamborough Head being 
visited during the last three days above-mentioned. There will 
be five sections, viz. : systematic, distributional, anatomical and 
palaeontological ornithology ; migration; biology, nidification and 
oology ; economic ornithology and bird protection ; and 
aviculture. Member’s subscription is £1, Mr. C. E. Fagan, bf 
the Natural History Museum, being Treasurer; and ladies are 
eligible for membership. We notice the names of our President, 
of Mr. Pycraft, A.L.S., and of other Selbornians, upon the General 
Committee. All enquiries should be addressed to the Secre- 
tary, J. Lewis Bonhote, M.A., Ditton Hall, Fen Ditton, 
Cambridgeshire. 
Preservation of Big Game. — An interesting article on the 
Society for the Preservation of the Wild Fauna of the Empire 
and the necessity for Government action — mainly with reference 
to Africa — from the pen of Sir H. Seton-Karr, C.M.G., M.P., 
appeared in The Standard of March 2. “ Your true big-game 
hunter,” says Sir Henry, “is a naturalist and a lover of wild 
life, paradoxical as the statement may appear to some people, as 
well as a man who likes the healthy excitement of the chase. 
He kills for trophies, and, where necessary, for food, but hates 
