April 



j^''l Field Naturalists'- Club — Proceedings^ 219 



2. By Mr. J. Gabriel, entitled "The Incubation of the 

 Mutton-bird's Egg." 



The author said that during the visit to the Furneaux Group 

 of islands in November, 1893, one of the inhabitants informed 

 him that the incubation of the eggs of the Mutton-bird took 

 eight weeks. As his informant made the statement so con- 

 fidently, he accepted it as correct until a few years ago, when 

 he determined to test the subject himself. With the assistance 

 of some friends, several tests had been made both by placing 

 eggs under a domestic hen and in an incubator, with the result 

 that the period of incubation was forty-six days. 



The president congratulated the author on the information 

 supphed, which had long been a matter of doubt. 



Mr. G. A. Keartland asked whether the eggs were kept 

 warm from the moment they were taken from the burrow 

 until they were placed in the incubator, to which Mr. Gabriel 

 answered in the negative. 



3. By Mr. J. W. Audas, F.L.S., entitled "The Grampians 

 Revisited." 



The author dealt principally with the Mount Difficult Range, 

 which necessitated a very arduous climb, though the trip 

 was in other respects delightful. He noted on the summit 

 the interesting composite Olearia speciosa, described in 1907 

 as a species new to science from specimens grown in the Royal 

 Botanic Gardens, Kew, England, from seed forwarded from 

 the Botanical Gardens, Melbourne. On the slopes of a gully 

 the orchid Caladenia congesta was seen in two different forms. 

 He also visited Mount Rosea by a different route than that 

 followed on his previous visit, finding PiiltencBa rosea, from which 

 this peak takes its name, in full bloom. At a part called 

 " The Terraces " he observed a specimen of the pine Callitris 

 rhomboid ea forty feet high and four feet in circumference at 

 its base. 



Mr. F. Pitcher asked if the author had found anything out 

 of the common on Mount Difficult, to which he repHed that 

 the vegetation was very similar to other parts of the Grampians. 



EXHIBITS. 



By Mr. J. \V. Audas, F.L.S. — Eleven species of dried plants 

 endemic to Victoria and peculiar to the Grampians and south- 

 west, including Olearia speciosa, Hutch., and Thryptome}ic 

 MitchelUana, F. v. M. 



By Miss Bury. — A specimen of Kalimnan ironstone, with 

 fossils, obtained during the Club excursion to Beaumaris, 14th 

 February, 1914. 



By Mr. A. D. Hardy, F.L.S. — Hapalosiphon Hibernicus, an 

 alga, from sphagnum collected by Mr. F. G. A. Barnard during 

 the Club excursion to Mount Baw Baw. 



