Cbe Ulctorlan HaturaHst 



Vol. XIX.— No. 4. AUGUST 7, 1902. No. 224. 



FIELD NATURALISTS' CLUB OF VICTORIA. 



The special meeting of the Club was held in the Royal Society's 

 Hall on Monday evening, 14th July, 1902. Mr. O. A. Sayce 

 (one of the vice-presidents) occupied the chair, and about 40 

 members and visitors were present. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



The hon. sec. read a communication from the Royal 

 Geographical Society of Australasia, Queensland Branch, stating 

 that arrangements had been made to celebrate, on the 

 I St August next, the 83rd birthday of their first president and 

 honorary councillor, the Hon. Augustus Charles Gregory, C.M.G., 

 F.R.G.b., one of the greatest Australian explorers, when addresses 

 appropriate to the occasion would be delivered and presentations 

 made to Mr. Gregory, who, in replying, will allude to his 

 contemporaries in the field of Australian exploration and 

 discovery, and the society invited the Field Naturalists' Club to 

 take part in the celebration. 



The hon. sec. mentioned that the committee had asked Mr. F. 

 M. Bailey, F.L.S., Government Botanist of Queensland, to repre- 

 sent the Club on the occasion. 



REPORT. 



The hon. sec. read a report from the sub-committee (Messrs. 

 C. C. Brittlebank, G. A. Keartland, and J. A. Kershaw) appointed 

 to draft a reply to a report forwarded by Mr. C. W. Maclean, 

 Inspector of Fisheries, from Constable Carey, of VVhittlesea, 

 regarding the wholesale destruction of native birds through 

 eating poisoned grain laid for rabbits. The sub-committee fully 

 upheld the constable's statements, and these were endorsed by 

 all the evidence obtained on the subject from various parts 

 of the State, and stated that among the birds and mammals 

 destroyed in this manner were Cockatoos, Parrots, Bronze-wing 

 Pigeons, Satin Bower-birds, Magpies, Quail, &c., and Opossums, 

 and where " Toxa " poison is used many honey-eating birds are 

 killed. It was pointed out that as the law at present stands 

 farmers are compelled to lay poison to destroy the rabbits, and it 

 was urged that some means other than that now used be adopted. 

 With this view it was suggested that the use of bisulphide of 

 carbon to suffocate the rabbits in their burrows would be more 

 effectual, and would destroy both the young and old at the same 

 time without causing the serious loss among the native birds. 



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