^^'=P*g'"| Field Naturalists^ Club — Proceedings. yj 



six months spent in New Guinea — from May to October, 1917. 

 The trip was made principally with the view of making collec- 

 tions of butterflies and moths, but other insects were also taken. 

 Some notes were also given about the bird and plant life of 

 the Astrolabe Range, some twenty miles from Port Moresby. 

 The author said that six months was far too short a time to 

 exhaust the novelties of even the limited area visited, while 

 in the higher Owen Stanley Range there should be inexhaustible 

 treasures for naturalists of every taste ; but time and the 

 proper season must be at the disposal of any who desire to 

 thoroughly explore any given district. 



The chairman said he had been greatly interested in the 

 paper, especially the remarks about the " Fever-bird " — a name 

 given to the Long-tailed Nightjar, on account of its " Chop, 

 chop, chop " note being kept up at intervals during the night, 

 and so annoying patients suffering from fever. He had been 

 told by a doctor recently that if one shifted camp frequently 

 there was not so much danger of malarial fever as when living 

 permanently in one place. 



Mr. H. B. Williamson expressed his pleasure at the author's 

 statement that he had killed only two birds in the course of his 

 thirty years' collecting, one of these being a Butcher-bird that 

 was destroying his specimens. 



Mr. F. Pitcher asked whether Eucalyptus platyphylla is truly 

 deciduous or whether the condition of the tree might not be 

 influenced by some obscure cause. Mr. Dodd said that the 

 same species, known around Kuranda as the " Poplar Gum," 

 lost its leaves regularly during October and November. 



EXHIBITS. 



By Mr. J. W. Audas, F.L.S. — ^Fresh flowers of Spreading 

 Acacia, Acacia diffusa, Edwds., from plant grown by exhibitor ; 

 the species seems to do well in cultivation, and is free of insect 

 pests. 



By Mr. F. P. Dodd. — Butterflies, moths, &c., from New 

 Guinea, in illustration of paper. 



By Miss A. Fuller. — Dried flowers, &c., from India. 



By Mr. C. L. Plumridge. — Pot-grown specimen of Epacris 

 longiflora, in bloom. 



By Prof. Sir Baldwin Spencer, K.C.M.G. — Specimens of 

 wood-lice, from Northern Territory, in illustration of note. 



By Mr. A. L. Scott. — Specimens of aventurine felspar. 



After the usual conversazione the meeting terminated. 



Grampians Excursion. — Intending excursionists are re- 

 minded that the list at Tourists' Bureau will close in a few 

 days. 



