In reference to this presentation the secretary read the following 

 note addressed to him by the donor : — 



"11th May, 1875. 



" Dear Sir, — The samples of metal on the card accoinpanying this 

 are the result of qualitative analysis only. The copper from such a 

 source, i.e., coal is invested with interest. The gold I obtained by 

 employing the iodine process, which is quite modern, vide ' Crooke s 

 Select Methods in Chemical Analysis,' p. 271. Neither Gold or Copper 

 exist in sutRcient quantity to have a commercial value. The crude 

 sulphide of Bismuth contains about 15 per cent, of copper. 



" I remain, etc., etc., 



" S. H. WlNTLE." 



Presentations Nos. 2 and 3 were examined with much interest, and 

 in connection with them the Chairman offered the following remarks :— 

 About the middle last month Mr. Wm. Peacock, of Sorell, presented to 

 the Museum the beautiful specimen of the Nankeen Kestrel ( Tinnimcidus 

 cenchrokles) now before you. Tasmania is not given as a habitat of this 

 charming hawk by Gould, and this is jirobably the first instance 

 of its presence here being publicly recorded, though I find another 

 specimen in the Museum labelled from Clarence Plains, and presented 

 by Mr. Luckman in April, 1873. These specimens are unquestionably 

 a great addition to the Museum, but it should be borne in mind by 

 farmers and gardeners that this bird, like its European congener, preys 

 far more on insects than on any other food, and is therefore not only a 

 source of attraction when wheeling in circles far over head, or poised 

 for minutes together apparently motionless, but is also earning our 

 gratitude by destroying heaps of grasshoi^pers and other insect pests. 

 Mr. Edward Swan has presented the Museum with the nest and one 

 egg of the Pieed Warbler [Calnmohcrpe Austraris) obtained by him in 

 Victoria, and has written me from Launceston, recording the presence 

 of the bird in Tasmania as follows : — 



" St. Leonards, 21st April, 1875." 

 " My Dear Allport, — During the past summer I observed a pair of 

 Reed Warblers (Calamoherpe Atistralis) that had taken up their quarters 

 among a bed of reeds on the banks of the North Esk, near Launceston. 

 They arrived there in September, remained till March, and then 

 disappeared. As the Reed Warbler is not allowed bj' Gould to inhabit 

 Tasmania, and has not, so far as I am aware, been previously noticed in 

 this colony, knowing the interest you take in all matters ornithological, 

 I have much pleasure m informing you of its appearance among us, in 

 order that you may add another to your list of Tasmanian birds. I did 

 not find their nest, though I knew from the actions of the old birds 

 that they had either eggs or young near at hand ; but I readily 

 obtained several nests in Victoria along the river Yarra, and in other 

 localities. These were, for the most part, supported by three or four 

 reeds, or [suspended from the branches of willows overhanging the 

 water, so that they could not be reached from land. In one case the 

 nest was built at a greater height than usual, on a tree growing some 

 distance from the water. The Reed AVarbler is a late breeder ; the nest, 

 which with au egg is forwarded you, was not finished till near the end 

 of January, nor the eggs laid till Februaiy. It is probable there are two 

 broods, for the young had left some of the nests found a month earlier. 

 As a songster, it is a success, its only rival here being the striated Reed 

 Lark (Calamanthus striatus), with which and the little Grass-bird 

 (Sphenceacus gramineus) it may have been confounded, or, I think, it 

 would have been oftener noticed, as it most likely occurs in other parts 

 of the colony similar to the one indicated. The Melbourne bird-stuffers 

 did not possess any skins of this kind, else I would have procuied 



