130 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



The leader (Mr. F. G. A. Barnard) reported that the excursion 

 to Willsmere (Kew) on Saturday, 21st November, was fairly 

 attended, considering the threatening weather, eight members 

 being present. The ponds were found to be too full of water for 

 much collecting to be done ; however, one of the party secured 

 eight species of Ostracoda, six belonging to genus Cypris and two 

 to genus Candona. Few insects or plants of note were seen. 

 It was decided to try the locality again when the state of the 

 lagoons would admit of closer search. 



PAPERS. 



No less than four papers were put down for reading at this 

 meeting. Mr. T. S. Hall, M.A., contributed the first, his subject 

 being a " Note on the Glacial Beds near Heathcote." These 

 beds are locally known as the Wild Duck Creek beds, and are best 

 reached from Derrinal railway station. Scattered throughout 

 the beds are masses of rocks of all shapes and sizes, almost all of 

 which are ground and scratched on more than one face. The hills 

 overlooking the creek valley are covered with masses of rocks of 

 various kinds, and these also bear evidence of ice action, either 

 as striations or as well-ground facets. Mr. T. S. Hart, B.A., 

 referred to similar charateristics in a deposit near Ingliston, 

 whilst Mr. G. Sweet exhibited some striated pebbles, probably 

 glaciated, from the heights of Myrniong, near Bacchus Marsh, as 

 also a glaciated pebble from the ancient glacier whose course was 

 that of the present Lake Wakatipu, New Zealand, for comparison 

 with it. Mr. T. Steel, F.C.S., regretted that the writer had 

 not recorded any evidence of organic life in the deposit. 



Mr. A. J. Campbell, F.L.S., then brought up a note on " A 

 Veritable Nest and Egg of a Bird of Paradise" (Ptilorhis 

 victories). Eastern Australia possesses a genus (three species) 

 of these beautiful birds, which are known to us as Rifle Birds. 

 Owing to their retiring character and the restricted area of their 

 distribution the birds are very seldom seen ; much interest, there- 

 fore, attached to the note, which narrated the finding of the nest 

 and egg of one of the species by Mr. Dudley Le Souef in a late 

 visit to the North Barnard Islands, about forty miles off the 

 coast from Cardwell (Queensland). 



A paper by Mr. G. Renner on " A Review of Dr. Volger's 

 Spring Theory" followed. This theory asserts that the deeply 

 seated springs are not fed by rain water which gradually sinks 

 down to their level, but are produced and supported by the con- 

 densation of aqueous vapour which is deposited during the pass- 

 age of the atmosphere through the various strata of which the 

 upper portion of the earth's crust is composed. Hence it follows 

 that deeply seated spring water is the best for consumption, since 

 it has not been contaminated by the various organic substances. 



