ANNUAL MEETING. 
1 23 
of the expense that is needful to keep a curator and his staff 
going. There is, I am thankful to see, a move in the right 
direction being made in some places. I was very glad to be 
present at the opening of a charming little museum in Epping 
Forest. It is intended solely to cultivate and teach an interest 
in the objects found in the immediate district. Yet here, again, 
although the museum has been founded, there seems to be no 
permanent endowment to secure a good curator. If the thou- 
sands, a}'e, tens of thousands, which have been spent on so- 
called technical education had only been spent in founding 
really good local museums — places where anyone wishing to 
know about any bird, or stone, or plant, might go and see for 
themselves — for I maintain that a museum in its proper sense 
should be a place of instruction, not merely showing things 
stuffed and dried like miserable mummies, but giving instruc- 
tion as to its nature and habit, and any other we might wish to 
know — what an immense store of useful information would 
have been gained. 
But I began by inquiring whether this taste was growing, 
and I am glad to see in the report that the Council is facilitating 
the establishment of Junior Branches. You cannot begin too 
young in fostering a taste for natural history ; not only will the 
knowledge last longer, but it impresses itself so much more than 
in later time. I remember when I was a very small boy, only 
nine years old, that I had a very large collection for my age, and 
some of the things I had in my museum at that time, have been 
a source of great interest to me ever since. In particular, before 
I had got much of my collection together, I remember as a very 
little boy seeing a little bird — it was a wood-warbler — stuffed, on 
a little stand in a pawnbroker's shop in Stratford-on-Avon, my 
native place. I can recall exactly even now what it looked like. 
I fell in love with the little bird at once and inquired the price, 
which I was told was 3d. Not possessing that sum myself, I 
extracted it from some relatives, and became the possessor of the 
bird. In my absence at school it was not adequately cared for, 
and fell a prey, being placed where lumber is stored, to the moth 
and rust which doth corrupt. But ever since those days, when I 
have seen that bird, whether in the Highlands of Scotland or 
the woods of Germany, it always seems to me something different 
to all other birds. It was no doubt badly stuffed and wrongly 
placed, but for all that it taught me the name of one bird, and 
gave me a strong interest in all connected with it. I should 
consequently encourage the foundation of museums for children, 
with adequate collections in each department, though that would 
be treading on difficult ground owing to certain provisions of the 
“ Wild Birds Protection Act.” I suppose the instinct of killing, 
which is so prevalent, survives, because our ancestors for many 
generations depended upon their power to kill in order to live. 
If they could not go out into the fields and catch and kill some 
animal they would perish of hunger. That was the original 
