48 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



THE LATE DR. P. H. MacGILLIVRAY, F.L.S. 



By the death of Dr. P. H. MacGillivray, M.A., LL.D., F.L.S., of 

 Bendigo, on 8th July, Victorian natural science has lost one of 

 its most brilliant workers. Dr. MacGillivray's papers on the 

 Polyzoa of Victoria contributed for a number of years to the 

 proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria, and his descriptions 

 of Victorian Polyzoa in Sir F. M'Coy's " Prodromus of the 

 Zoology of Victoria," entitle him to rank with such European 

 authorities as Hincks and Busk. He was for many years a 

 member of the Field Naturalists' Club of Victoria, and took 

 an active interest in the working of the Bendigo Science Society, 

 the Bendigo School of Mines, and other institutions, in con- 

 sequence of which it is proposed to erect a memorial to him in 

 that town. 



We are pleased to learn that Mr. C. French, jun., has been 

 appointed to the vacancy in the Entomological Branch of the 

 Department of Agriculture, which is in charge of his father, Mr. 

 C. French, F.L.S. 



The Christchurch (N.Z.) Press of 12th June reports that 

 Mr. H. B. Coles, son of Mr. A. Coles, taxidermist, of Melbourne, 

 has purchased two deposits of moa bones from Mr. M'Donald, of 

 Kapua, Waimate. One of these deposits was partly worked by 

 Captain Hutton, who obtained a number of bones from it, and 

 the other, about six chains distant, is now being opened out by a 

 man in Mr. Coles's employ. This new deposit proves to be a 

 very valuable one, and already Mr. Coles has obtained sufficient 

 bones to make up from sixty to seventy complete skeletons. 

 The bones are in an excellent state of preservation, some of the 

 pelvis and breast bones and tibias being exceptionally good. 

 From this deposit has also been obtained bones of the extinct 

 species of swan, the same as was dicovered by Mr. H. O. Forbes 

 in a cave at Sumner. Mr. Coles hopes to find enough of the 

 bones to enable him to complete a skeleton. He has also found 

 some of the bones of an extinct species of large weka. This 

 deposit of bones was found in an old quicksand, and Mr. Coles 

 is of opinion that the birds on going there to feed were drawn in, 

 and so lost their lives. The sand is still dangerous in parts, and 

 the man who is engaged in getting out the bones had some diffi- 

 culty on one occasion in freeing himself from it. 



Entomologists are notified by advertisement on the cover 

 that Messrs. Cherry and Sons, of Gisborne, are prepared to supply 

 all requisites for the ensuing season, having just landed a ship- 

 ment of natural history apparatus. 



