2o6 Excursion to Warburton. [^"MarctT' 



to try the possibilities of the valley of the Little Yarra and of 

 the Mount Beenak district from a natural history point of 

 view. They tell me the next day turned out beautifully fine, 

 and they had a very interesting ramble. Taking the Gilderoy 

 road as far as Slaty Creek junction, they followed the latter 

 road through a rugged gorge as far as Hazeldene, when they 

 followed the Beenak Company's timber tram for some miles 

 through well-timbered, hilly country to Mount Beenak, just 

 before reaching which the tram passed through a patch of 

 hazel scrub right on the summit of the range, at an altitude of 

 fully 2.000 feet. On emerging from the scrub a pretty scene 

 of tall trees and tree-ferns presented itself in probably the head 

 of M'Crae's Creek. An interesting plant in bloom was Sccevola 

 cemula, one of the Goodeniaceae, with pale blue and yellow 

 flowers. Returning by a different tram down the mountain- 

 side, they crossed one or two pretty creeks and passed through 

 a thicket of Banksia collina. eventually reaching the Gilderoy 

 road at Hackett's Creek, about two miles from where they 

 had left it in the morning. They regard the district as well 

 worth the attention of botanical collectors, and. from the 

 wealth of silver wattles along the Little Yarra, consider it 

 should repay a visit towards the end of August, if only to see 

 that tree in bloom. The leader took his leave of the remainder 

 of the party at Warburton, and crossed country northerly to 

 Healesville, there to join a geological member of the Club in 

 a canoe trip down the Yarra to study its botany and 

 physiography, and on these points should have something to 

 say at a later date. — A. D. Hardy. 



FURTHER NOTES ON THE MUTTON-BIRDS OF BASS 



STRAIT. 



By Joseph G.\briel. 



{Read before the Field Naturalists' Club of Victoria, i^th Jan., 191 2.) 



The untold numbers of Short-tailed Petrels, Puffin us brcvi- 

 catidus, Temm., popularly known as " Mutton-birds," frequenting 

 the islands of Bass Strait and the adjacent shores, towards the 

 end of each year, for breeding purposes, is one of the most inter- 

 esting ornithological features in the Southern Hemisphere. 



Before commenting on the reports which have lately ap- 

 peared in the newspapers about the alleged cruelty to these 

 birds during the laying season, I will briefly refer to a few- 

 facts which have been previously mentioned before this Club. 



Firstly, the enormous flight noticed by Flinders on gth 

 December, 1798, while sailing near the Three Hummock Island, 

 at the western entrance to the strait — which, by approximate 

 measurement, he computed to number not less than one 



