THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 3 
when there was a very large attendance of the members and their 
friends, it being estimated that over 350 ladies and gentlemen were 
present. 
On their arrival the visitors rambled through the lower rooms of 
the building, which contained a very fine display of objects of 
natural history both living and dead The tables were arranged on 
a much better plan than last year, and allowed greater facilities for 
studying the many excellent and beautiful exhibits, which will be 
fully detailed further on. Prominent among these may be noticed 
the magnificent collection of Australian parrots, shown by Mr. T. 
A. Forbes-Leith, the case containing representatives of 65 species; 
the many rare beetles, butterflies, and moths exhibited by Mr. C. 
French; the fine collections of shells by Messrs Gatliff and Worcester; 
the lepidoptera of Mr. Kershaw; the Australian coleoptera of Mr. 
Best; the Victorian sponges by Mr. Lucas; the live snakes by Mr. 
D. Le Souéf; the rare plants by Baron von Mueller; and the growing 
Victorian ferns by Mr. F. G. A. Barnard. 
After a pleasant half-hour among the birds, insects, ete., the 
visitors assembled in the upper hall to hear the Rey. J. J. Halley 
deliver the presidential address, which was as follows:— 
Lavizs anp GentLemeN, Mempers or THe Fistp Natura.ist 
Crus or Victoria, 
In the address, which custom assigns to the President of a society 
jike ours, at its annual gathering an opportunity is given for a 
deliverance on any great subject that may have agitated intellectual 
society, or work done may be reviewed, or suggestions for future 
operations may be advanced. But before I attempt to do my poor 
part in any one of these directions it must be mine to thank my 
fellow-members for the very high honour they have conferred upon 
me in unanimously and cordially electing me to be their President 
—an honour alike unsought and unwished for. ladies and 
gentlemen, while I thank you for this honour, I think that you 
have made a mistake. Your President should be one who, in the 
arena of science, has won his knightly spurs like my learned prede- 
cessors, Professor M‘Coy and Dr. Dobson, rather than one who 
pretends to be but an esquire, achieving uo conquests for himself, but 
merely bearing arms after nobler combatants. I may, at any rate, 
congratulate our Club on the pleasant and prosperous year that now 
draws to a close. Our meetings have been always interesting 
and instructive, and sometimes specially so. Rare and costly 
specimens in all departments of natural history have graced our 
exhibitions. Papers not unworthy of more ambitious societies have 
been read, honest work in the field has been done, and we number 
in our guild 160 ladies and gentlemen. 
