THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 59 



reported in the Naturalist for May last, a decided success, and 

 the president awarded to Master Montaigne O'Dowd the prize he 

 had promised for the best series of notes. Your committee find 

 their greatest difficulty is to keep in touch with each member, the 

 amount of subscription payable being hardly sufficient to warrant 

 the expense of a monthly notice to each. The attendance at 

 the excursions has not been so large as during the previous year, 

 but we feel confident that good work has already been done, and 

 it will be found in years to come that some of the active 

 members of the Club have graduated through the ranks of the 

 juniors. 



" A varied and attractive programme of excursions for senior 

 members was again provided. Your committee find an increasing 

 difficulty in selecting new localities, owing to the extension of the 

 metropolitan area, and each year it is found necessary to go 

 further afield in quest of suitable collecting grounds. The 

 attendance at the excursions has shown a decided improvement, 

 several being well attended, while at the Ringwood excursion in 

 October last the large number of thirty-three members and friends 

 were present. 



" The list of extended excursions included a three-days' outing 

 at Warburton, and a ten-days' trip to the National Park, Wilson's 

 Promontory. The excursion to Wilson's Promontory has been 

 the most important held for many years. In approaching the 

 Government, with the assistance of kindred societies, to 

 endeavour to obtain the site as a National Park, as mentioned in 

 last year's report, your committee were hampered by the lack of 

 sufficient information to support their views as to the value of the 

 site for this purpose. In order that members could obtain this 

 personal knowledge, it was decided to spend the Christmas and 

 New Year hoHdays on the Promontory. The information 

 obtained will be of great value, not only to the Club, but to those 

 desirous of gaining further knowledge of the fauna and flora of 

 that comparatively little known region. The scientific results of 

 the trip have been exhaustively dealt with by the several members 

 of the party, and have been published in the April issue of the 

 Victorian Naturalist. Your committee feel that while the site is 

 not an ideal one as a sanctuary for wild life, it is the best that can 

 be obtained. 



" We hope that the half-mile strip extending along the shore 

 line, which at present is only temporarily reserved, and without 

 which the Park will be robbed of the necessary protection, will be 

 early added to the permanent reserve. Upon the erection of a 

 rabbit-proof fence at the north-western corner, the destruction of 

 the wild dogs, and the appointment of a ranger who is in 

 sympathy with the Club's object, the locality, in the opinion of 

 those having the requisite knowledge, will afford a safe refuge for 

 our fast-disappearing native fauna. To complete the Club's 



