Cbe Ulctori an naturalist 



Vol. XXIX— No. 5. SEPTEMBER 5, 1912. No. 345. 



FIELD NATURALISTS' CLUB OF VICTORIA 



The ordinary monthly meeting ot the Club was held in the 

 Royal Society's Hall on Monday evening, I2th August, 1912. 



The president, Mr. J. A. Leach, M.Sc, occupied the chair, 

 and about 30 members and visitors were present. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



From Mr. A. H. E. Mattingley, C.M.Z.S., suggesting that 

 the Club take some share in the cost of the erection of the 

 tablet to Matthew Flinders, by the National Parks Association, 

 on Station Peak, You Yangs. The president stated that the 

 committee proposed to grant £1 is. towards that object. On 

 the motion of Messrs. D. Best and J. Shephard. the action of 

 the committee was endorsed. 



REPORTS. 



A report of the excursion to the National Museum on Satur- 

 day, 13th July, was given by the leader, Mr. J. A. Kershaw, 

 F.E.S., who stated that about thirty membeis attended. The 

 afternoon was devoted to an examination of the entomological 

 collection, and the manner of collecting, killing, and mounting 

 insects was dealt with. 



In the absence of Mr. H. W. Wilson, leader of the excursion 

 to the Zoological Gardens on Saturday, loth August, a brief 

 report of the excursion was given by Mr. F. Pitcher, who said 

 that, favoured by good weather, a very pleasant and instructive 

 afternoon had been spent in examining, under the leader's 

 guidance, the large collection of birds on view there. 



An account of the junior excursion to the National Museum 

 on Saturday, 3rd August, for the study of fossils was for- 

 warded by the leader, Mr. F. Chapman, A.L.S., palaeontologist 

 to the Museum, who reported that a fair number of junior 

 members, with a few seniors, assembled to learn something 

 about fossils. A preliminary halt was made before the table 

 of strata, where the three principal groups of fossiliferous 

 beds were pointed out and briefly explained. The contents 

 of the wall-cases were then examined in some detail, and the 

 more interesting fossils selected, such as the beautiful im- 

 pressions of fossil leaves from the Oligocene and Miocene of 

 Bohemia and Bavaria, representing those modern trees the 

 birch, poplar, maple, willow, and fig ; the ferns, giant horse- 

 tails, and the earliest seed-bearing plants of the ancient coal- 

 fields ; the elegant coiled ammonites, " pagoda stones," and 

 the nautilus, the first two of which are now extinct ; and the 



