14 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 
marsupial Lions, were the forerunners of the native cats, &c., but 
were as large as an ordinary lion. They had some interesting 
peculiarities of dentition, which the lecturer described. 
Again, New Zealand was the only present abode of wingless birds 
of the genus Apterya, or ‘‘ Ki Wi” of the natives, and that had its 
great precursor in the Deinornis (qiganteus, Hlephantopus), or ‘‘ Moa” 
of the natives, a bird ranging up to twelve feet high, whose fossil 
remains are found in the most recent geological deposits of the 
island, but they had also been found fossil in Queensland. 
After referring to some triumphs of Palceontological skill by which 
some of these creatures had been restored in the first instance from 
a single tooth or other fragment, and then discovered in more 
complete form afterwards, so as exactly to “ justify the wisdom” of 
the Palcontologist, the lecturer referred to the “law of correlation 
of form,” and went on to explain from it, how ‘a single fragment 
of bone in the hands of a Cuvier, an Owen, or a McCoy, would 
afford a clue by which any one of these learned savants would be able 
not only to reconstruct the entire skeleton of the animal to which it 
belonged, but to predicate its food, its habits, and in a word, its 
whole natural history.” The conclusion of the lecturette consisted 
of a quotation of Prof. Owen’s testimony in favor of the Theistic 
position as against materialism, as the result of his study of 
Palceontology. 
The lecturette was illustrated by diagrams, and by skulls of recent 
animals. 
The second lecturette, ‘‘ Insects, their forms and Metamorphoses,” 
was delivered by Mr. F. G. A. Barnard, the hon. secretary, and 
proved both interesting and instructive. The lecturer, in as simple 
words as possible, showed the position of the class J/nsecta in the 
animal kingdom, and its relationship to the other classes of the same 
sub-kingdom, Annulosa. He then gave a brief account of the 
metamorphosis, or change of form, in the three more or less com- 
plete stages through which every insect passes between its buth and 
its fullest development. The seven principal orders of insects were 
then rapidly glanced at, and their leading differences explained. 
References were made to common insects, of the various types, likely 
to be familiar to most persons, and to a series of drawings made by 
the lecturer ; who, in conclusion, expressed his willingness to afford 
any information possible respecting the insects in his exhibit in the 
lower room, as also the larva and pupa cases of the moths and 
butterflies shown. 
Baron von Mueller, in moving a vote of thanks to the president 
and lecturers, said, that as one of the earliest naturalists in the 
colony,’ it! gave him great pleasure to witness the advance and 
prosperity of the Field Club. A quarter of a century ago, from the 
chair now occupied by the president, he had prophesied the growth 
