40 Field Naturalists' Club — Proceedings. [voh'xxfx. 



Hardy, F.L.S., G. A. Keartland, and F. Pitcher were duly 

 elected. 



On the motion of Mr. J. Stickland and Dr. T. S. Hall, M.A., 

 a hearty vote of thanks was passed to the retiring office-bearers. 



Mr. F. Wisewould, before retiring from the chair, thanked the 

 members for their support during the two years he had had the 

 pleasure of presiding over the meetings of the Club, and trusted 

 that continued progress would mark the coming year. 



Mr. J. A. Leach, M.Sc, in taking the chair, thanked the 

 members for the confidence they had reposed in him in electing 

 him as president, and hoped that he would be a worthy 

 successor to the retiring president. 



PAPERS READ. 



1. By Mr. D. J. Mahony, M.Sc, entitled "On the Bones of 

 the Tasmanian Devil, and other Animals, Associated with 

 Human Remains near Warrnambool ; with a Note on the Dune 

 Sand." 



The author stated that during the recent Easter holidays he 

 had traversed several miles of the sand dunes along the coast 

 between Warrnambool and Port Fairy, and had examined 

 several of the kitchen middens existing among them. A jaw- 

 bone of the Tasmanian Devil, Sarcophilus ursimis, had been 

 found associated with the remains of living species of marsupials, 

 both quite unfossilized, and looking as though they had 

 been exposed to the weather for some years. The conditions 

 under which they were found are unfavourable for their yiro- 

 longed preservation, and a comparison with rabbit bones from 

 the same locality, which are undoubtedly quite recent, and with 

 human remains, which in all probability are also quite recent, 

 leads to the conclusion that the Tasmanian Devil must have 

 survived on the Australian continent to a very much later j)eriod 

 than has been generally supposed. 



A short discussion ensued, in which Dr. Hall, Mr. F. Chap- 

 man, A.L.S., and the chairman took part. 



2. By Messrs. J. H. Gatliff and C. J. Gabriel, entitled " On a 

 New Variety of the Marine Shell Fasciolaria austnilasia. Perry." 



The authors pointed out that this shell, which is fairy common 

 along the southern coast of Australia, exhil)its so many varia- 

 tions from the t\i)ical form, and as one fairly constant variation 

 had already been recorded as a variety (coronala), they con- 

 sidered that the form under notice should also receive varietal 

 name, so as to save confusion, and perhaps elevation to specific 

 rank by some enthusiastic sj^ecies-making conchologist. They 

 had, therefore, bestowed u])on it the varietal name of bakeri, in 

 honour of Mr. F. H. Baker, F.L.S., who had furnished the type 

 specimen. A large series of shells of the specific form and its 

 varieties was exhibited in il'ustration of the paper. 



