THE AUSTRALIAN NATURALIST, 43 
collector, often paid by wealthy people in other countries, 
killing every bird. that is met with, on the chance that it 
may prove to be a new sub-species or local variety; an- 
other crime committed in the name of science. 
. What is the remedy? There is a tendency nowadays 
to rely on legislation as a panacea for everything. And 
if properly administered, legislation may do much. There ~ 
is likely to be an Animal Protection Bill brought before 
the State Parliament, which is to be on the lines long ad- 
vocated by Mr. W. W. Froggatt, t.c., there is to be no 
long schedule of names of protected birds, but instead, a 
short list of pests that may be destroyed. Such an Act, 
if efficiently administered, will do much; but if the work 
is to be added to the enormous load of duties already car- 
ried by the police, I see little hope of good results. 
In this matter I put the highest value on education 
as a means of prevention. The Gould League of Bird 
Lovers and the Wild Life Societies are doing admirable 
work, and we may hope that their efforts will result in 
creating a feeling that the lives of our wild animals are 
sacred, and only to be taken under circumstances of ex- 
treme necessity. And every member of this Society 
should be a missionary, preaching the gospel of animal 
(and I may say plant) protection. 
I may say a few words about the object of such So- 
cieties as ours. We call ourselves Field Naturalists, and 
are proud to belong to the category in which so many il- 
lustrious names are found—Gilbert White, Darwin, Wal- 
lace, Bell, Bates, Fabre, the Peckhams, McCook, Peach, 
Dick, Edwards, and Gosse. These are the men in whose 
footsteps we should aspire to tread. As field naturalists, 
we should all try to do something, however slight, towards 
solving the wonderful problems which we have all around 
us, problems which, from our unique fauna and flora, dif- 
fer greatly from those which confront naturalists in other 
lands. Let me urge upon you each individually to under- 
take some little bit of work, some inquiry into the won- 
ders of the world of life. We have already some in our 
Society who are doing this kind of work—Miss Mabel 
Brewster, Miss Froggatt, Miss Sulman, Mr. Wickham, and 
Mr. Gallard—not to mention those whose life-work is 
research. No doubt, many others are doing work quietly. 
But the fault I have to find with them is that they are 
doing it quietly. Why not tell us about it? If it is put 
on record, help and criticism will be available to help 
you to do better work, 
