34 
The Emu. 
Australasian Ornithologists' Union. 
INAUGURAL SESSION. 
PRELIMINARY LECTURE. 
The inaugural gathering- of the Union was begun in Adelaide 
on 31st October, on which day a party of n:iembers arrived from 
Melbourne, and were received at the railway station by local 
ornithologists. In the evening a lecture, illustrated by admir- 
able lantern views, was delivered in the Federal Hall, Grote- 
street, in the presence of His Excellency Lord Tennyson, Lord 
Richard Nevill, the Chief Justice (Sir Samuel J. Way) and Lady 
Way, and a large and representative audience. The subject was 
" An Evening with Australian Birds," by Mr. D. Le Souef, 
C.M.Z.S., and the chair was taken by the Hon. T. H. Brooker, 
Minister of Agriculture and Education. The lecture was 
arranged by and under the auspices of the various scientific 
societies of Adelaide, including the South Australian Ornith- 
ological Association, the Field Naturalists' Section of the Royal 
Society, the Birds Protection Society (Adelaide Branch), the 
Native Fauna and Flora Protection Committee, and the local 
Photographic Society. 
In introducing the lecturer, Mr. Brooker said his department 
had great interest in the protection of native birds, and had done 
all it could to foster a love for them among the children by pub- 
lishing articles and issuing placards giving views of the birds, 
and interesting accounts of their habits. These articles had 
been so well appreciated that arrangements had been made by 
neighbouring States for republication in their territories. He 
was glad, on behalf of the Government, to welcome Mr. Le Souef 
and his fellow-visitors, and hoped that, although they were "birds 
of passage," their visit would be pleasant to themselves and 
profitable to South Australia. 
Mr. D. Le Souef then spoke for about two hours on the habits 
and nests of a number of Australian birds, alluding to many 
points of interest in connection with them, also to how useful 
they were to man, emphasizing the fact that the more people knew 
of and appreciated the birds around them the better protection 
they would afford those feathered friends. The photographs 
(taken by the lecturer during various trips) covered a great range 
of bird life, and included inland as well as coast and sea scenes, 
the last series showing the White-breasted Sea Eagle, the 
home, &c., of the White-capped Albatross, views explanatory 
of Albatross flight, &c. A view of Ibises in a Riverina swamp, 
and the computation that this immense bird colony alone could 
account for some 25 tons of grasshoppers per day, evoked great 
applause, as did the pictures of a vast rookery of Penguins and 
those illustrative of peculiar phases of Pelican life. The lantern 
was well worked by Mr. R. B. Adamson. At the conclusion of 
