IRature IRotes : 
TEbe Selbovne Society’s flDaga3ine. 
No. 102. JUNE, 1898. Vol. IX. 
SELBORN IANA. 
Annual Meeting and Conversazione. — The Annual Meet- 
ing was held at the Society’s Rooms, 20, Hanover Square, on 
the evening of Monday, May 23, the President, the Right Hon. 
Sir John Lubbock, Bart., F.R.S., M.P., in the Chair. The 
Council’s Annual Report* having been taken as read, the Presi- 
dent in moving its adoption said : — 
As time goes on and the population of our country becomes 
denser, the necessity for such a society becomes greater. 
The human race has lived for so many thousand years mainly 
on the produce of the chase, that the predatory instinct has 
become deeply seated in the human breast, and particularly in 
the childish breast. It is not of course that they are cruel, but 
they do not realise the pain they are inflicting. 
The presence of man is not of itself unpleasant to animals. 
Some of them, at any rate, really seem to enjoy our society. 
That a large population is compatible with animal life, and 
especially with bird life, we see in our London parks and 
gardens, where the woodpigeons and seagulls are welcome 
additions to our town life. 
The London County Council have done and are doing all 
they can to preserve the wild creatures in the county of London. 
They would, I am sure, listen to any suggestions which might 
conduce to this desirable object, and are entitled to the thanks 
of all lovers of Nature for what they have already accom- 
plished. 
After some remarks on the Report itself, Sir John con- 
tinued : — 
We meet at a moment when the country is exceptionally 
This will appear in the July number. 
