Feb., 1909.] THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 155 



By Mr. A. H. E. Mattingley.— Skin of Spoon-billed Kingfisher, 

 Clytoceyx rex^ Sharpe, from New Guinea. 



By Mr. A. J. North, C.M.B.O.U.— Photographs of nests and 

 eggs of Newton's and Tooth-billed Bower-birds, in illustration of 

 paper. 



By Mr. F. Pitcher.— Large specimens of grass, Poa (Glyceria) 

 dives, and fern, Pteris aquilina, from Sassafras, Dandenong 

 Ranges ; also, wings of buff-plumaged form of English Thrush, 

 from bird killed by cat, Melbourne Botanic Gardens, December, 

 1908. 



By Mr. A. O. Thiele. — Droserabmaia,hom Fitzroy Falls, New 

 South Wales ; and syenite with crystals of triclinic felspar, from 

 Bowral, New South Wales. 



After the usual conversazione the meeting terminated. 



BOTANICAL NOTES OF A VISIT TO THE SNOWY 

 RIVER DISTRICT. 



By Dr. C. S. Sutton. 

 (Bead before the Field Naturalists' Cluh of Victoria, lAth Dec, 1908.) 

 Never yet having visited the eastern part of Gippsland, it will be 

 easily understood how eagerly I seized the opportunity, which 

 most unexpectedly presented itself in the early part of last 

 October, of paying a visit to Orbost, on the Snowy. Here was a 

 chance at last of making acquaintance with some of the many 

 climbing plants in which the flora of the eastern district is so 

 strong, all but half a dozen of them occurring there, and nearly 

 half of them being strictly confined to that quarter. Now, too, 

 perhaps, if the fates were very kind, would I get to where the 

 Waratah grows, and the Livistona australls, our sole representa- 

 tive of the noble family of palms, gives tropical flavour to the 

 landscape. 



The weather was dull, cold, and threatening when I com- 

 menced my journey, and from the train the country had a very 

 drab appearance. So few flowers were to be seen that it seemed 

 as if spring had arrived only in the calendar and not in strict 

 reality. Indeed, until Moe was passed very little else than 

 Ranunculus lappaceus and Craspedia Richea was noted. At the 

 Haunted Hill, however, things began to improve somewhat, and 

 a section of the railway reserve was quite gay with low bushes of 

 PuUencea glabra, flowering profusely, Glossodia major, Diicris (sp.), 

 Leptorrhynchos tenuifoUus, and others. Still, nothing new to me 

 was seen until between Sale and Bairnsdale, when a Callitris, 

 presumably C, calcarata, began to make its appearance, and 

 occasional other unfamiliar plants were noticed, arousing in me 

 the desire to be out of the train, so that I could make closer 

 examination. 



