8 



and valuable specimens. During the last session of 

 the Legislature, we have become an incorporated body. 



Among several other specimens of the higher-order 

 of animated beings, we have in our possession that 

 curious and anomalous inhabitant of New South 

 Wales, the Ornithorhynchus para doxus. BLUMENB. 



Sixty specimens of birds, mostly native, with a 

 corresponding suite of nests and eggs occupy their 

 proper station. 



Rare and elegant species of Testudines ; foreign 

 and native Reptilia ; the commencement of a fine 

 cabinet of Conchology, and another of Mineralogy ; 

 the rich foreign, with the more humble native species 

 of the insect world, and the prepared treasures of the 

 vegetable kingdom, may be found in their several 

 compartments. Comparative anatomy has not been 

 unoccupied in its curious researches ; and the Library, 

 consisting of an hundred volumes of elementary and 

 higher appropriate reading, is furnished with a pros- 

 pective view of usefulness. 



Thus in the brief space of scarcely more than two 

 years, a Society, extensive in numbers and embracing 

 in its precincts a large and flourishing County, has 

 risen from the united and zealous endeavors of a few 

 individuals, to its present condition. Without a spe- 

 cimen of any kind, destitute of a single work on 

 Natural Science, with no endowment or pecuniary 

 aid at that time ; and now, with an increasing list of 

 members, our shelves and cabinets enriched with val- 

 uable acquisitions and a spur given to a more general 

 taste for such studies. We owe much to the kind- 

 ness of our friends for our rarer and valuable foreign 



