18 
Secretaries’ Report for the year 1906. 
The Society’s rules decree that the production of an annual report 
shall be one of the burdens under which the secretaries languish; 
moreover, there is also laid down in those rules—perhaps not unwisely 
-—-the precise form that the said report shall take. It is not sur¬ 
prising, therefore, that the secretaries’ annual literary effort smacks of 
repetition, and since the Society plods along year after year practically 
without change in any respect, we offer no apology for a necessarily 
monotonous performance. 
In our report for 1905 we ventured to gently chide members on 
the subject of attendance, and the reproof has had precisely the effect 
—or lack of effect—that the result of previous efforts to stir members 
into at least a semblance of greater activity led ns to expect. Last 
year the average attendance was, to be precise, 16-85, while this year 
it has been 16-55 ; the attendance of visitors has also declined from 
IT to -85. Having in our previous report expended considerable 
energy in an endeavour to bring home to members that their presence, 
as well as their subscription, is essential to the well-being of the 
society—obviously without result—we will this time leave the 
following fact to speak for itself, viz., that the total attendance of those 
members within easy reach of Finsbury Circus gives an average of 
six per capita out of a possible 20. 
The membership of the society remains practically in statu quo, 
four members having retired, while five new members have been 
elected ; for some occult reason it is apparently impossible for the 
society to secure more than 70 to 75 members. 
As regards field meetings, we have this year tried the experiment 
of increasing the number, and instead of only two being held, three 
were conducted, viz.: to Horsley in May, Effingham in June, and 
Chalfont Road in July, by Messrs. Ivaye, Shaw, and Prout respec¬ 
tively ; these were, we think, sufficiently successful to encourage a 
continuance of the increased number of meetings. It could be wished 
that a greater variety of localities could be found, but there are so 
many limiting factors that this is apparently impossible. 
In tbe matter of donations there is not very much to record. 
Some interest seems to have been aroused by our curator’s persistent 
attempts to obtain members’ assistance in the improvement of the 
collection of lepidoptera. The Society is indebted for numerous 
specimens to the Rev. C. R. N. Burrows and Messrs. J. A. Clark, W. 
J. Kaye, A. W. Mera, and V. E. Shaw. It must not be forgotten also, 
just because it is annual event, that the President has once more 
added a volume of the Entomologist's Record to the library. 
The Society’s programme for the winter months has, we think, 
been as interesting as usual, but that is mainly due, as we pointed out 
last year, to the efforts of a select few of our members who year after 
year throw themselves into the breach—or perhaps it would be more 
correct to say that they are led there, and at times almost dragged 
there by your humble servants the secretaries. One’s imagination 
fails to picture the position of the Society in the event of these 
gentlemen coming to the conclusion that they had earned a rest, and 
therefore declining to give further assistance. It is more than time 
that other members began to get into training to assist and succeed 
our present stalwarts. For this reason, as also for the excellence of his 
