482 



Nomination. — Maurice Edward Saunders, electrical engi- 

 neer, Millswood, was nominated as a Fellow. 



Exhibits. — Captain S. A. White, who was welcomed by 

 the President on his return from his expedition to the Mus- 

 grave Ranges, exhibited four specimens of a bird, Xerophila 

 pectoralis, collected thirty miles and sixty miles west of Oodna*- 

 datta. One specimen only was known hitherto, collected many 

 years ago and described by Gould, and many naturalists had 

 come to view this as a sport and not a distinct species, as its 

 re-discovery now proved it to be. Mr. H. G. Stokes exhibited 

 from the neighbourhood of the Radium Extraction Company's 

 Mines in the Flinders Range a further collection of minerals, 

 including several specimens of the rarer metals and elements 

 not hitherto met with in this State. The deep lemon-yellow 

 radio-active mineral, Phosphuranylite, is associated with Tor- 

 bernite and Autunite in the No. 7 ore deposit. The Columbite, 

 a niobate and tantalate of iron and manganese, occurs 

 sparingly in a pegmatite about two miles south-east of the 

 No. 6 deposit. The hydrous silicate of alumina, etc., has not 

 yet been determined : it occurs on Mount Gee and to the east 

 of Radium Camp. Mr. Walter Howchin exhibited a piece- 

 of hardened shelly-beach material which he had recently 

 obtained from Struan, ten miles south of Naracoorte. The 

 discovery was of interest as proving the height to which the 

 south-east country had been raised above the sea-level. It 

 had been generally thought that the maximum elevation of 

 the land in the south-east had been about 80 ft., but the 

 Struan beach deposits are about 200 ft. above present sea-level, 

 proving elevation to that extent. The beds in question form 

 a cliff about 15 ft. in height in Mosquito Creek just above 

 the bridge, and are associated with a low range of indurated 

 blown sands (known locally as the Limestone Ridge) that 

 formed the coastal sand dunes when the sea shore was in that 

 locality. Mr. A. M. Lea exhibited a drawer of leaf-eating 

 beetles, some of which were very handsome. One kind was 

 remarkable in that it sometimes almost defoliates the danger- 

 ous "York Road" poison plant (Gastrolobium) in Western 

 Australia. He also showed portion of an ivory billiard ball 

 from the Northern Territory which had been attacked by 

 white ants. Mr. F. R. Zietz showed living snake-like lizards, 

 Lialis burtoni and Aprasia pulcheHa, from Darke Peak,. 

 Eyre Peninsula. All such lizards are confined to Australia r 

 Tasmania, and New Guinea. 



Paper. — "The Tribal Organization of the Western Aus- 

 tralian Aborigines," by Mrs. Bates, F.R.A.S., Hon. Protec- 

 tor of Aborigines (Eucla district). Mrs. Bates had worked 



