478 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION D. 
hands of small owners, who would have looked well after them for 
the sake of their fleece, and there would then have been no 
chance of deterioration from cross-breeding. This is the case in 
Angora in Asia Minor, the habitat of this particular breed of 
goats. 
The Cashmere goat has also been tried here, a number having 
been introduced in 1862, but it did not succeed ; in all proba- 
bility the difference of climate and elevation having something to 
do with the failure, Cashmere being from 5000 to 6000 feet above 
sea level. 
Deer, on the other hand, do very well in Victoria, and there 
are numbers of different varieties in the colonies. On the Upper 
Yarra the Fallow deer (Dama vulgaris) is well established ; they 
have increased and spread from some turned out by Mr. Paul de 
Castella many years ago. On the Grampians the Indian Axis 
deer (Cervus axis) are numerous, and in the Koo-wee-rup swamp 
and surrounding country in Mornington the Sambur deer ( Cervus 
aristotelis) are plentiful; they are the progeny and descendants 
of a few liberated many years ago by the Society ; this variety of 
deer is also established at ‘ Ercildoune,” near Burrumbeet. In 
the Gembrook Ranges the Rusa deer (Cervus hippelaphus) and 
Formosan deer (Cervus taévanus) are met with, but they have 
not had time to increase much yet, as it is not long since they 
were liberated by the Society. 
Little need be said about the hare, which seems to be only 
second to the rabbit in fecundity in this climate, and it seems 
to have spread all over Victoria from a few pairs liberated nearly 
at the same time by the Society at the Royal Park, by Mr. F. R. 
Godfrey at Mount Ridley, near Donnybrook, and by the late Mr 
William Lyall at ‘‘ Harewood,” near Cranbourne. They are fre- 
quently found in scrubby, mountainous country, where no one 
would expect to see them. 
The ostrich was first introduced by the Society in the year 
1868 ; they were first sent to the Wimmera, to one of Sir Samuel 
Wilson’s stations, and remained there for some years; they were 
then transferred to the care of Messrs. Officer Brothers, at the 
Murray Downs Station. Owing to the bad means of transit from 
the Wimmera to the Murray, and an accident to one of the hen 
birds soon after their arrival, the success of the experiment was 
nearly marred at the outset, as only one hen bird was left ; fortu- 
nately she proved herself equal to the occasion, and laid a number 
of eggs, which were successfully hatched. The birds gradually 
increased in number until they reached one hundred, the Messrs. 
Officer Brothers going to considerable expense in providing 
suitable accommodation and food for them. Some years after 
the Murray Downs Station was sold, and Mr. C. M. Officer pur- 
chased the Society’s interest in the birds and removed them to a 
property of his near Kerang, where they still remain; but the 
