172 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



Honours. — Mr. A. W. Howitt, F.G.S., an honorary member 

 of the Field Naturalists' Club, has recently been elected an 

 honorary member of the Anthropological Institute of Great 

 Britain and Ireland, in recognition of his distinguished work in 

 Australian ethnology. 



Mr. A. J. Campbell has had further honours conferred upon 

 him in being elected a Corresponding Fellow of the American 

 Ornithologists' Union, in recognition of his devotion to Australian 

 ornithology. 



Microscopical. — The opening meeting of the fourth winter 

 session of the Hawthorn and Camberwell Microscopical Society 

 took place recently, when the president, Mr. O. A. Sayce, gave 

 an interesting demonstration on the culture of Bacteria, which 

 was very fully illustrated by specimens, &c. This society, which 

 meets monthly at members' houses, includes several members of 

 the Field Naturalists' Club among its members, and, in seeking to 

 provide mutual help to workers with the microscope, takes up a 

 position useful to many nature students. 



MiNAHS AS Vermin Destroyers. — I was much surprised on 

 Sunday last to see a Minah in my garden with a live mouse in its 

 beak. I watched the bird for a few moments, and saw it carry 

 the mouse to a bricked path and knock the mouse on it several 

 times. In order to make sure, I frightened the Minah away, and 

 found the mouse hardly able to crawl. Leaving the mouse in the 

 spot where the bird had left it, I went away some distance. The 

 Minah returned and finished the mouse off. Shortly after the 

 Minah returned with its mate, and one of them caught another 

 mouse, and they killed it in the same manner. I took the two 

 dead mice away, and about an hour afterwards I found a third, 

 apparently killed in the same way. The mice came from a shed 

 in the garden in which the fowls' food is stored. — Fred. S. 

 Bryant. 64 Barker's-road, Hawthorn, 5th February, 1903. 



The Emu. — The April number of this magazine, being the 

 concluding part of the second volume, is to hand, and contains a 

 number of interesting articles. An additional attraction is the 

 first coloured plate issued. This is devoted to figures of three of 

 our rarest Blue Wrens — viz., Malurus elizahethce, M. whitei, and 

 M. assimilis — and has been excellently produced by the artist, 

 Mr. H. Gronvold, and the printers, Messrs. Mintern Bros., of 

 London. The colours of the birds being so brilliant, the plate is 

 a particularly attractive one. 



