J""^' 1 Field N aiuralists' Chih — Proceedines. lo 



igi2 J o .' 



glands, and exhiljited specimens in illustration ol his remarks. 



3. i3y Mr. J. W. Audas, F.L.S., entitled " An Eastertide in 

 the Victorian Pyrenees." 



The author dealt with the i)lants, &c., noticed during a few- 

 days' ramble in the Blount Cole district, near Beaufort, and 

 referred to the timber resources of the district. 



NATUR.\L HISTORY NOTES. 



Mr. (i. A. Keartland related an instance of a magpie hax'ing 

 been attacked by a Boobook Owl, while the magpie's mate re- 

 mained near, and evidently supported the defence. Mr. A. D. 

 Hardy said that Mr. Keartland's remarks recalled to his mind 

 a somewhat similar incident some years ago. when two hawks 

 preying on a murdered magpie deliberately took it in turns 

 to feed and keep guard on an adjacent stump, while other 

 magpies vainly attempted either rescue or revenge. 



Mr. F. Chapman said that in the paper by Messrs Mathews 

 and Iredale on " Perry's Arcana." published in the current 

 (May) Naturalist, in dealing with the palaeontology of the 

 publication, the authors, referring to a fossil trilobite. called by 

 Perry, in 1810, Monociilithos gigantca, remark, " a generic 

 introduction ])reviously unnoticed " ; while, as a matter of 

 fact, Martin, in his " Petrificatia Derbiensia." 1809, figures a 

 limuloid or king-crab under the name of Entoinolifhits nwno- 

 culites liinatiis, so that it is quite probable that Perry identified 

 his s])ecimen with the ]:)reviously-figured fossil of Martin, and 

 now merged in the genus Belinurus. 



EXHIBITS. 



Details of the exhibits will appear in next issue. 



After the usual conversazione the meeting terminated. 



New AiSTRALi.w Birds. — In the second (April) number of the 

 Austral A'l.'ian Recorti (London) to hand by the last mail. Mr. 

 Gregory Mathews devotes twenty-eight i)ages to additions and 

 corrections of his "Hand-list of the Birds of Australia." 

 Nearly 120 new liirds are listed, nearly all sub-species with 

 trinomial names. North-West Australia furnishes the greater 

 number, though several are recorded for Victorian localities. 

 This part of the record is rather scantily done -frequently the 

 State is omitted, hence one unacquainted with the geograiihy of 

 Australia will sometimes he at a loss to know what part of the 

 Continent forms the bird's habitat. In a second article are 

 given one hundrcl and thirty-seven descriptions of new or 

 hitherto undescribed eggs of some Australian birds, naturally 

 many of them belonging to the trinomial sub-species of the 

 other list. Among them is that of Dacclo gigas tregcllasi. from 

 Auburn, Victoria. 



