Otago Institute. 575 



like the elder, gooseberry, &c. But cultivated plants are not well fitted 

 to compete unaided in the struggle for existence. The bulk of natural- 

 ised forms seem to come in the third category, notably weeds like 

 shepherd's purse, chickweed, and groundsel. But within historic times 

 none are positively known to have been introduced by " natural " agencies, 

 though there is no inherent improbability of the occurrence. 

 Some comments were made by F. R. Chapman. 



Mr. C. W. Chamberlain read an account of a trip by a 

 new track to the West Coast, which was subsequently pub- 

 lished in full in the Otago Daily Times. 



Fourth Meeting : 14th August, 1900. 

 Mr. E. Melland, President, in the chair. 



Professor Benhani opened the business of the evening by 

 giving particulars of a young whale which had been caught 

 near the Otago Heads by some fishermen, was towed up to 

 Dunedin, and secured for the Museum. 



The whale was 10 ft. long. As would be readily recognised, it was not 

 often that a freshly caught whale was available for dissection and exami- 

 nation. This specimen was a rorqual {Balcsnoptera rostrata), and one of 

 its characteristics was a series of furrows in the skin covering the throat 

 and chest, which distinguished it from the ordinary whalebone whale. 

 The rorqual fed on fish, and not on the minute organisms that served for 

 the food of the ordinary whale; and the gular furrows were related to 

 the distension of the throat. The rorqual was practioally of no com- 

 mercial value, and did not yield an abundance of blubber. 



Professor Benham laid on the table a paper on " The 

 Marine Annelids of the New Zealand Shores." 



In doing so he said that, although most groups of our native animals 

 had been studied more or less, the marine annelids had been entirely 

 neglected. A few had been described by early zoologists in the sixties, but 

 since then only one new species had been described in the Transactions 

 of the Institute — that was Lepidonotus giganteus, described by Mr. Kirk 

 in 1878. The speaker had gathered together a considerable amount of 

 material, some of which he found in the Museum, collected by Captain 

 Hutton, others by Professor Parker, and a good quantity he had collected 

 himself from time to time. 



Mr. T. D. Pearce gave an interesting and philosophical 

 account of " The Knowledge of Animals m the Sixteenth and 

 Seventeenth Centuries." 



He showed how slavishly the doctrines of Pliny and Aristotle were 

 adhered to till Bacon arose, and that, if Bacon made no discoveries, he, 

 at an) 7 rate, impressed upon the coming scientific men the absolute neces- 

 sity of observation in drawing their conclusions. Having done that, 

 Mr. Pearce gave several very interesting examples of the curious theories 

 held by scientific men in the period referred to regarding animals. 



Mr. A. Wilson expressed a hope that Mr. Pearce would bring the 

 subject up to the present time at a future meeting of the Institute 



