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MIDLAND UNION OF NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETIES. 
MIDLAND UNION OF NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETIES. 
EIGHTH ANNUAL MEETING, BIRMINGHAM, 1885. 
The Eighth Annual Meeting of the Union was held at Birmingham 
on the 16th and 17tli June. Unfortunately the attendance from other 
towns was but small, although the local Societies had made excellent 
arrangements for Meetings, Conversazione, and Excursions. 
The Council Meeting, held in the Council Chamber of the Birming¬ 
ham Corporation, by kind permission of the Mayor (Aid. T. Martineau), 
was attended by fifteen delegates. Reports were read from the 
Secretaries, Management Committee, and Treasurer. It was resolved 
that in order to open the way for the admission of such Scientific 
Societies as are not strictly Natural History Societies, the name of 
the Union be altered to “ The Midland Union of Natural History and 
Scientific Societies.” 
After the Meeting of the Council, the President of the Union 
(R. W. Chase, Esq.) entertained the delegates and a number of other 
gentlemen at luncheon at the Grand Hotel. 
O 
The Annual General Meeting was held (by the kind permission of 
the Bailiff and Council) in the Examination Hall of the Mason 
College. In addition to the delegates, there were a number of members 
and friends present—among them the Rev. H. W. Crosskey, Messrs. 
W. H. France, Robt. Chase, Miss Taunton, Miss Jermyn, Mrs. Potts, 
Birmingham ; Herbert G. Young, of London ; H. Pearce, Stourbridge; 
E. George, Northampton; H. E. Forrest, Shrewsbury; Rev. W. H. 
Painter, and others. 
The President of the Union, R. W. Chase, Esq., was in the chair, 
and read a very interesting Address on the work of Natural History 
Societies, and on some special points in the science of ornithology, of 
which he is a most assiduous and successful follower. The thanks of 
the meeting were heartily voted to him for the Address, and he was 
requested to allow it to be published in the “ Midland Naturalist.” 
The Annual Report was then read and adopted, and ordered to be 
printed in the “ Naturalist.” Mr. A. W. Wills then moved, Mr. W. R. 
Hughes seconded, and it was resolved, that Messrs. A. W. Wills, 
E. W. Badger, and Professor W. Hillhouse be requested to take steps 
to circulate the appeal on the subject of the preservation of rare plants 
which is embodied in the Annual Report. 
REPORT OF THE COUNCIL. 
Societies in the Union. 
During the past year the composition of the Union has undergone 
but little change. The Shropshire Archaeological and Natural History 
Society and the Oxfordshire Natural History Society have withdrawn 
from the Union, but the Council is gratified to announce that the Rugby 
School Natural History Society, which for a short time belonged to 
the Union and then seceded, has decided to re-enter it, so that the 
list of the component Societies will now stand as follows:— 
