Published by the Gordon Technical College and the 

 Allied Associations. 



VOL. II.— No. 4. JULY, 1897. 



No. 8. 



All communications to be addressed to the Editor, Mr. H. E. 

 Hill, at the Gordon Technical College, Geelong, Victoria, 

 Australia. 



The Editor is not responsible for the statements in any paper. 



NOTES. 



The following note is supplied by Mr. J. Hammerton : — 

 "On March 8th, 1897, while returning from Torquay (Spring 

 Creek), I noticed a pair of Black Cockatoos feeding on the 

 seeds of the grass trees. This is the first time that I have 

 noticed them on the Grass Tree Plain." 



At the Conference of delegates of the corresponding 

 societies of the British Association, Liverpool, 1896, perhaps 

 the most original paper read was one by Mr. W. M. Flinders 

 Petrie "On a Federal Staff for Local Museums." The author 

 advocated the formation of " a federal staff to circulate for all 

 purposes requiring skilled knowledge, leaving the permanent 

 attention to each place to devolve on a mere caretaker." By 

 this arrangement " each museum would have a week of 

 attention in the year from a geologist, and the same from a 

 zoologist and an archaeologist." The duties of such a staff 

 would be to arrange and label the new specimens acquired in 

 the past year, taking sometimes a day, or perhaps a fortnight 

 at one place ; to advise on alterations and improvements ; to 

 recommend purchases required to fill up gaps ; to note 

 duplicates, and promote exchanges between museums ; and to 

 deliver a lecture on the principal novelties of their own subject 

 in the past year. " The effect at the country museums would 

 be that three times in the year a visitant would arrive for one 

 of the three sections, would work everything up to date, stir 

 the local interest by advice and a lecture, stimulate the care- 

 taker, and arrange routine work that could be carried out 

 before the next year's visit, and yet would not cost more than 

 having down three lecturers for the local institution or 

 society apart from this work." 



Zoologist, March, 1897. 



