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Vol. XII.— No. 4. JULY, 1895. No. 140 



FIELD NATURALISTS' CLUB OF VICTORIA. 



The ordinary meeting of the Club was held at the Royal 

 Society's Hall on Monday evening, 8th July, 1895. The 

 president, Professor Baldwin Spencer, M.A., occupied the chair, 

 and some 80 members and visitors were present. 



REPORT. 



A brief report of the excursion to Flemington Bridge, on 

 Saturday, 22nd June, was received from Mr. T. S. Hall, M.A. 

 The excursion was well attended, and was devoted mainly to 

 an examination of the geological features of the railway cutting. 



MEETING FOR PRACTICAL WORK. 



The monthly meeting for practical work was held on Monday 

 evening, 24th June, when Mr. J. Shephard gave a demonstration 

 on the measurement of objects under the microscope. The 

 different methods of executing measurements were described, and 

 stress laid on the fact that the simplest, and the one needing the 

 least apparatus — camera lucida and stage micrometer — gave good 

 results. A simple method of constructing a camera lucida 

 was shown. Afterwards those present practically carried out 

 measurements of a number of microscopic objects with their own 

 apparatus. 



VISITOR. 



Mr. A. H. S. Lucas, M.A., B.Sc, of Newington College, 

 Sydney, formerly editor of the Victorian Naturalist for many 

 years, was cordially welcomed by the chairman, and briefly 

 responded. 



PAPERS. 



1. By Professor Baldwin Spencer, entitled " Notes on the 

 British Museum." 



The author's remarks referred to the natural history department 

 of the Museum at South Kensington, and, opening with a brief 

 history of the Museum, the rapid development of this fine institu- 

 tion, now the largest and most complete in the world, was 

 described. A beautiful series of limelight views from photographs 

 of the buildings and specimens gave a better idea than words 

 could convey of the extent and variety of the collection. Not 

 the least interesting were the groups of birds mounted in their 

 natural surroundings — a department which might be considerably 

 extended in our colonial museums. 



2. By Mr. R. Hall, entitled "The Birds of the Box Hill 

 District." 



