Che Queen sland naturalist. 
THE ORGAN OF THE FIELD NATU -; ALISTS’ CLUB 
AND rrS BRANCHES. 
VoL. II. April, 1921 Xo. 6. 
PROCEEDINGS. 
January to March, 1921. 
ANNUAL MEETING. 
The Club went into recess during January, and the 
first meeting of the year Avas held on 13th February. This 
was the Annual Meeting, and at it officers were elected, as 
set out on the cover-page of this issue. An innovation was 
the appointment of a Patron, and members expressed plea- 
sure at the fact that His Excellency the Governor of 
Queensland (Sir Matthew Nathan) had agreed to accept 
this position. 
Formal business, including the adoption of the annual 
balance-sheet, was folloAved by the President’s address. 
MIGRATION OF BIRDS. 
Mr. Barker, in speaking on this subject, emphasised 
its importance and wonder. It had been the subject of 
discussion, he said, since the dawn of history, and was 
still almost as great a mystery as ever; even those who had 
made it a life-study had touched but little more than the 
fringe of the subject. The Royal Australasian Ornitho- 
logists’ Union had been making efforts to collate facts in 
regard to the regular movements of Australian birds, and 
had enlisted the services of observers at different points, 
including lighthouse-keepers along the coast and on the 
islands. Results, however, had been poor so far. It was 
to be hoped that the ranks of those sufficiently interested in 
Australian bird-life to observe and record the movements 
of our avi-fauna, would be materially increased, and that 
the resulting sheaf of records would lay bare much that 
is now obscure. 
Proceeding, the retiring President discussed the signi- 
ficance of the Avord “migration.” as applied to the 
movements of birds. “Many writers,” he said, “have 
treated it as synonymous with geographical distribution, 
and have elaborated intricate theories of land-bridges, 
glacial action, and lost continents to support their theories. 
Others read it to mean any movement of bird-life, nomadic 
or regular, collective or individual, extensive or local. At 
