Our Work.
Volume 7, 1896, pgs. 314-315
The Annual Meeting will take place on June 11th. The following arrangements have been made for the occasion:--At 4:30 p.m. the General Council will meet at the office of the Union, 28, Victoria Street, S.W., when the report will be read, and the election of officers for the ensuing year will take place. The representative of each Branch is earnestly invited to attend.
In the evening (8 to 11 p.m.) a General Conversazione of the Members of the Union will take place at the Portman Rooms, Baker Street (Dorset Street entrance). Tickets from Branch Secretaries. The Chair will be taken by the President, the Rt. Hon. the Earl of Meath. Miss Mason will address the meeting, and Mrs. Dallas Yorke (Visitor to the House of Education) will distribute certificates to the Ex-Students.
Readers of the Parents' Review who are willing to help in the formation of new Branches are also cordially invited, and Miss Blogg will be happy to arrange for hospitality to be offered to them during their stay in London. Members of the Executive Committee will wear a distinctive badge, and be happy to answer any enquiries as to the work of the Union.
House of Education.--A bright little visit from Mrs. Steinthal has been one of the interests of the month. Nature work has been very brisk during this glorious Spring. The authors discussed in the two meetings of the Literary Coterie, during the last month, were George Eliot and Charles Kingsley. These meetings are valuable means of culture to the students: about twenty outside neighbours and friends are members of the Coterie: these take it in turn to choose an author for an evening's reading. The reader for the evening opens proceedings with a short appreciation of the author, and then calls upon the various members whom he has asked to read illustrative passages. When, as in the case of Tennyson, Matthew Arnold, Kingsley, etc., the author has written songs, these are sung at intervals during the evening. Happily a good many members of the Coterie read exceptionally well. May we suggest that such literary society might be formed in almost any neighbourhood, and is a source of great refreshment and pleasure?
House of Education Natural History Club.--Notes by M. L. Hodgson.--Even the most unobservant person possible, must at some period or other have been struck by the clever devices by which many animals strengthen their hold on life. Some of the most beautiful of these are exhibited by creatures almost too insignificant you would say, perhaps, to be worth looking at, at all, and yet which on examination prove to be endowed with the most wonderful contrivances for preserving the, to you, apparently insignificant lives. The protective colouration of many of the higher animals is too obvious to escape remark. Those of you who have ever hunted the hedges for pheasants' and partridges' nests know how difficult it is to see them; even when one knows exactly where they are, if the bird is on the nest or off makes very little difference, as plumage, nest, and eggs all have some share in the general resemblance to the surroundings. If you follow up this line of thought, many like instances will soon occur to you, and it will not be difficult for you to discover the remarkable examples of protective colouration afforded by the common animals and birds of your neighbourhood.
A delightful chapter in "The Study of Animal Life" ([Sir John Arthur] Thomson) is entitled "Shifts for a Living," and I heartily recommend you all to read it, as it contains much interesting information on the subject of Nature's devices for the preservation of the lives of creatures great and small. It is a most fascinating study, and one which well repays the student. Ranging far and wide over the world we meet with tigers, lions, panthers, snakes, frogs, birds, eggs, all sharing the same wise care, which gives to all alike the power of defence or protection. But it is to the more lowly forms of life that I wish to draw your attention at present. Those of you who have not seen a caterpillar turn apparently into a stick, a spider into an odd looking bud in the axil of leaf and stem, a beetle feign death, or a brilliant butterfly suddenly disappear as it alighted on the bark of a tree, have yet much to learn. We owe many thanks to the men who have recently done so much for us in the study of insect disguise and mimicry, if only for drawing our attention to all the wonders which surround us. Many curious ways are adopted by creatures to secure their eggs or their young from injury--some of you may remember the wonderful spider's nest we got, so carefully made and covered with lichen, that, had we not watched it being made, we could never have found it, so closely did it resemble the bark of the tree it was on. Some quite harmless flies resemble a hornet, while others look like bees or wasps.
Whereas some colours act as a protection, we find on the other hand that, in many cases, brilliant colouring acts as a warning. The brilliantly coloured caterpillars of the gold tail moth, so often seen on our thorn hedges, seem to be a case of this kind; they are intensely disagreeable and if handled, the hairs cause little bumps or swellings on the skin, and it is very well known that birds dislike them. They appear to be quire aware of this and take no pains to hide themselves, while such juicy morsels as the thin skinned green caterpillars, have to hide for their lives, and take all sorts of precautions to escape from their enemies, not only by means of protective resemblance, but also by making "masks" of green leaves, and also by swinging away on the end of a long thread, when alarmed. Butterflies and moths are so obviously protected in many cases that I think you will not have much difficulty in finding out the best examples for yourselves. I have long ago drawn your attention to this charming subject of disguises and mimicry, and I am referring to it now in the hope of finding that some of you have in the meantime been studying the subject up for yourselves and that you will be able to tell me some things you have actually seen and noted for yourselves. It is impossible in the short space at my disposal, to do more than remind you, that now is the time for this kind of work; everything in Nature seems out and about, and many of you, I know, are in places specially suitable for observations of this kind. Note books should be full and overflowing during this exquisite weather and splendid opportunities for out-door work.
Many excellent lists of flowers for April and May have reached me this year, both from students and pupils. In Ambleside we have several lists of 127 plants seen in flower between April 17th and April 30th. Those of you who have lists for the corresponding dates of last year will understand how very different our weather has been this year.
Proofread by LNL, Nov. 2020