president’s address. 
177 
MIDLAND UNION OF NATUEAL HISTOEY SOCIETIES. 
ANNUAL MEETING AT BIRMINGHAM, 
JUNE 16th, 1885. 
ADDRESS BY MR. R. W. CHASE, PRESIDENT OF THE UNION. 
At the annual meeting of the Midland Union of Natural 
History Societies it is the not unpleasing duty of the President 
to deliver an address. Considering the somewhat festive 
character of onr annual reunion, an abstrusely scientific 
paper would probably be unwelcome to the majority of my 
hearers. Indeed, I would ask you not to expect a learned 
discourse from me, for I have had no scientific training 
which would fit me to deliver one, and there are many present 
who are, I am sure, better qualified to give an address than 
to learn anything from me. 
I have taken up only one branch of Natural History, viz.: 
Ornithology, and that entirely in the position of an amateur. 
The principal reason why I have chosen that especial branch 
is, that birds seem to attract one’s notice more than any 
other members of the animal kingdom, frequenting, as they 
do, all the haunts of man. To this science I will ask your 
attention for a short time ; but before enlarging upon it I 
should like to make a few remarks upon the work done by the 
Union. 
In looking through the list of those Societies forming the 
Midland Union, and considering the large number of members 
composing the same, amongst whom will be found many well 
known as votaries of Natural Science, I am astonished that 
such a considerable amount of individual labour should be 
undertaken—which I know to be the case—and that yet the 
result in the aggregate should be so small. 
I think it would be an advantage if at the annual meeting 
of the Union a special line of study or research could be 
decided on, so that the accumulated knowledge might be 
published: a course which would greatly benefit future 
students. No doubt the chief drawback to a plan of this 
kind is the jealousy which frequently exists between students 
of the same subject, and prevents them from working har¬ 
moniously together; but this rivalry, if properly exercised, 
would cause healthy emulation and consequently greater 
efficiency. 
