July, 1907.] THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 49 



"To enumerate the honoured names connected with natural 

 history in AustraUa before 1880 is a task beyond me, but a few 

 occur in such names as Joseph Banks, Robert Brown, Thomas 

 Mitchell, Allan Cunningham, John Gould. Would that some 

 able pen would take up the task of placing a brief account of the 

 work of such great men and others in connected form before the 

 present generation of nature students. True, they worked more 

 as collectors than investigators of life-histories, which is now 

 considered the more important side of natural history, but the 

 one is necessary for the other, for in a new country, until your 

 objects have been collected in fairly large numbers, and dealt 

 with from a systematic point of view, it is difficult to see on what 

 lines to investigate the steps in their individual life-histories. 



" Turning to our own State we find such men as Mueller, 

 M'Coy, Selwyn, Howitt, and Castelnau laying down the first 

 broad lines of nature study, on which we in later years have been 

 privileged to build, and to some extent fill in the missing details. 



" The foundation of this Club was soon followed by that of the 

 Geelong Field Naturalists' Club, whicli, as might be expected 

 from the smaller population on which it has had to rely, has had 

 a more chequered existence than our own, but nevertheless it has 

 managed, in face of many difficulties, to publish its proceedings 

 at regular intervals, and so make available to the student a large 

 amount of useful information. Societies dealing to some extent 

 with natural science were also established at Ballarat, Bendigo, 

 and Castlemaine, but have ceased to be, for want of support, 

 though I believe that the stimulus which is now being given to 

 nature study throughout the State by the action of the Education 

 Department is likely to result in the re-establishment of the 

 Ballarat Society, if it has not already taken place. At Mortlake 

 a branch of the Geelong Club has been working for some time, 

 and since our last meeting a Field Naturalists' Society has been 

 started at Maryborough with every prospect of success. 



" The Australasian Ornithologists' Union, which has its head- 

 quarters in Melbourne, has achieved an immense amount of good 

 work in its own department, and in the Emu possesses a quarterly 

 journal of which it may well be proud; while the more recently 

 established (Melbourne) Bird Observers' Club is also directing 

 attention to the same fascinating class of animal life. 



" For the study of the minute forms of life we had the Micro- 

 scopical Society of Victoria, long since deceased, but represented 

 now by the Hawthorn and Camberwell Microscopical Society, 

 which is showing great vitality ; and I believe a Microscopical 

 Society has recently been started at Geelong. 



" Perhaps owing to the existence and strength of the Linnean 

 Society of New South Wales, it has been difficult in Sydney to 

 keep a society going on the lines of our own Club. After several 



