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Vol. XIV.— No. 1. MAY 6, 1897. No. 161. 



FIELD NATURALISTS' CLUB OF VICTORIA. 



The ordinary monthly meeting of the Club was held at the 

 Royal Society's Hall on Monday evening, 12th April, 1897. Mr. 

 J. Shephard, one of the vice-presidents, occupied the chair, and 

 about fifty members and visitors were present. 



REPORTS. 



A report of the excursion to Hatherley on Saturday, 13th 

 March, was read by the leader, Mr. J. Stickland, who mentioned 

 that the excursion had been very successful. A large number of 

 specimens, interesting to the student of cryptogamic botany, 

 such as Freshwater Alga?, Diatoms, &c, were found in the 

 Kororoit Creek. A few Protozoa and fossil Foraminifera were 

 also obtained. Phanerogamous plants were represented by 

 about twenty species found in flower. 



A report of the excursion to Coburg on Saturday, 10th April, 

 was made by Mr. T. S. Hall, M.A., who stated that the party had 

 examined with much interest the fine examples of columnar basalt 

 and geometrical pavement situated on the banks of the Merri 

 Creek, to the east of the Pentridge Stockade, and had spent some 

 time in following out the geology of the district. 



PAPERS READ. 



1. By Mr. H. T. Tisdall, entitled " A Botanical Peep into the 

 Rocky Pools of Sorrento and Queenscliff." The author gave a 

 short explanation of the structure of Algae, and then described the 

 seaweeds which might be found in the first tide-pools left by the 

 receding waves in such localities. He dealt with them in the 

 different groups of unicellular plants, such as Diatoms ; those 

 formed of cell filaments, as Cladophora ; then those formed of 

 cell plates, as Monastroma ; and lastly, those formed of cell 

 masses, as Ulva. A description of the seaweeds likely to be 

 found in a mid-tide pool was then given, the Algae of the deeper 

 pools being left for a future paper. 



The paper was well illustrated by drawings and specimens. 



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

 District — Warblers." The author dealt with ten species of 

 birds, of which eight were true " warblers," whilst one of the 

 remainder is probably the best warbler in Australia — viz., the 

 Blue Wren. A large amount of attention was directed to the 

 genus Acanthiza, and several well-defined, but generally unnoticed, 

 characters were pointed out by means of specimens of the 



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