﻿412 Proceedings. 



be finished until a full clescrij)tion of Nature in all the aspects she presents to 

 us in Otago has found its way into our Transactions ; and it is only by the 

 concurrent work of many that this can be accomplished. I shall ask a gentle- 

 man whom you all know by name, and whom I have the pleasure of seeing 

 present to-night, to tell you what he kindly told me this afternoon of the inter- 

 esting work in connection with the zoology of this colony which the Director 

 of the New Zealand Institute has in hand. The investigations we can make 

 in Otago will help forward this work, whilst it will in return proTide a basis 

 from which we can start in future researches. 



Captain Hutton, at the request of the Chairman, then addressed the 

 members of the Society, He said that the Geological and Museum Depart- 

 ment was taking steps to bring out a descriptive catalogue of New Zealand 

 birds at once, which he hoped would soon be followed by catalogues of the 

 mammals and fishes. The Rev. Mr. Cambridge had undertaken to work up 

 the spiders, and Mr. Pascoe, of London, the beetles, and he hoped that others 

 would soon be found to take up the other orders, and that before long they 

 would be able to bring out a New Zealand fauna to match the flora of Dr. 

 Hooker. He then proceeded to make a few remarks on the birds in the 

 Otago Museum. He said that this collection possessed an especial value, as 

 it had been catalogued for the New Zealand Exhibition. The collection was 

 a very good one of the birds of the South Island, and it possessed four species 

 that had not yet been named as New Zealand birds — viz., a sandpiper, of the 

 genus Tringa ; a gull [Larus jamesoni), and two petrels, Puffinus amauro- 

 soma, or the Mutton Bird, and Puffinus opisthomelas. These two birds he had 

 been able to identify with Procellaria tristis and Procellaria gavia of Forster, 

 thus settling two points which had long ptizzled ornithologists. The collection 

 also possessed four birds not yet represented in other museums — viz., Lestris 

 catarractes, Eudyptes antipodes, Thalassidroma marina, and a swallow shot at 

 Nelson. He had also been able, by going over the collection, to strike out 

 from the catalogue four birds whose sole claim to belong to New Zealand 

 rested on that catalogue — viz., Thinornis rossii, Nesonetta aucMandica, Procel- 

 laria cequinocfialis, and Graculus stictoceplialus. The Museum also jjossessed 

 the eggs of the Brown Linnet, only one nest of which had previously been 

 found. 



In order to ca,rry into effect a recommendation contained in the annual 

 report, it was resolved that the words quoted be added to Bule III. of the 

 Society, which then stood as follows : — "From and after the 1st September, 

 1869, any person desirous of joining the Society may be elected by ballot, by 

 being proposed, in writing, at any meeting of the Council or Society, by 

 two members, on payment of the annual subscription for the year then 

 current." 



