32 THE VICTOKIAN NATURALIST. 



By Mr. J. A, Kershaw, F.E.S., for National Museum. — Bird 

 skins — male of Ptilopus minutus, Campbell, type, from Cairns, 

 Queensland ; P. sicjjerbus, voung and adult male, from Queens- 

 land ; also female of same from Batchian Island. 



By Mr. A. H. E. Mattingley. — Egg of Keartland Honey-eater, 

 Ptilotis keartlandi, North, from N.W. Australia. 



By Mr. A. J. North, C.M.Z.S.— Skins of Superb Fruit-Pigeon, 

 Lam-protreron superbus, Temm., from Cardwell, Queensland, in 

 illustration of paper ; also photograph of wings of L. suj^erbus 

 and Spathopterus alexandrce. 



By Mr, F. M. Reader. — Dried specimens of following plants : 

 — Crepis taraxacifolia, naturalized and new for Victoria ; 

 Partlingia gracilis, F. v. M., new for S.W. Viptoria ; and 

 Salicornia australis, Sol., var. tumida, new variety. 



After the usual conversazione the meeting terminated. 



EXCURSION TO BROADMEADOWS. 



Over a dozen members, including four ladies, took part in the 

 excursion to Broadmeadows on Saturday, i2lh May. On a 

 previous excursion to this locality, after passing through the 

 township of Broadmeadows, which lies in a deeply trenched 

 valley cut through the bluestone of the plain well down into 

 the Silurian, we went up the valley of Moonee Ponds Creek. On 

 the present occasion, in order to get some variety, we determined 

 to push on to Gellibrand's Hill, about two miles northerly along the 

 Mickleham road, in all four miles from the station. This is the 

 nearest outcrop of granite to Melbourne, and from it was quarried 

 the stone for the former Prince's Bridge. The creek valley 

 below Broadmeadows, owing to the resistant basalt capping, is 

 steep-sided and narrow, but on leaving the township and walking 

 north-westerly towards the mount the slope is long and gradual, 

 as no basalt is met with. The road passes from the Silurian, 

 which, in most places, is weathered into a soft dazzling white clay, 

 in which only occasionally the stratification can be readily seen, 

 to the granite. The great feature of the granite area is the 

 change in the vegetation. Trees which are typically absent from 

 the basalt now become plentiful. There are a few She-Oaks, 

 Casuarina quadrivalvis, Lab., and 'Light\voods,Acaciamelanoxylon, 

 R. Br., which, however, ate not very good specimens, while the 

 Prickly Box, Bursaria spinosa, Cavan., is not uncommon. The 

 chief feature, however, are the gums. Box is common, and fairly 

 well grown, while splendid specimens of Red Gum, Eucalyp)tus 

 rostrata, Schlecht. — that is, from a picturesque point of view — 

 occur plentifully. I have rarely, if ever, seen finer specimens, the 

 foliage being very dense for the species. Near the top of the 

 hill are some fairly old specimens of various species of pines and 



