2 
The Emu. 
giving an account of the Bell Miner. The paper was followed by an 
exhibition of lantern views depicting birds and nests seen by Mr. Campbell 
during his excursions. Before breaking up the meeting resolved to form an 
Australian Ornithological Union, on similar lines to the British and American 
Ornithological Unions. 
A return dinner was given at the Victoria Coffee Palace on 
26th August, 1897. About the same number of gentlemen were 
present as in the previous year, amongst them being Dr. 
Chas. Ryan, Dr. Snowball, Mr. E. D'Ombrain, and other field 
naturalists. Mr. T. A. Brittlebank and Mr. G. E. Shepherd were 
present on behalf of provincial collectors, while the intercolonial 
ones were represented by Mr. A. E. Brent, of Tasmania. 
Apologies regretting absence were received from Sir Frederick 
M'Coy, Colonel W. V. Legge, and others. Mr. Campbell, re- 
plying to the toast of his health, made the prophetic utterance — 
" It is a very happy thought to make these reunions of ours 
annual affairs. If we keep them going no doubt they will 
merge into an Australian Ornithological Union at no distant 
date."* Lantern views of birds, nests, and eggs, and an 
exhibition of some of the rarest and most beautiful eggs, filled 
up a pleasant and profitable evening. 
There was a lapse of two years ere the next gathering took 
place, at the Coffee Palace, on the ist September, 1899. This was 
at the invitation of Mr. Dudley Le Souef The return dinner, 
on 7th November, 1900, was an unqualified success, and at it 
the preliminaries of a union had a definite beginning. Apologies 
were read from Sir Malcolm M'Eacharn, Mr. C. W. De Vis 
(Queensland), Mr. S. W. Moore, M.L.A. (New South Wales), 
Dr. Morgan (South Australia), Colonel Legge (Tasmania), Mr. 
C. French (Government Entomologist), and others. There were 
present — Dr. Chas. Ryan (in the chair), Mr. J. W. Mellor 
(representing the Ornithological Association of South Australia), 
Mr. C. F. Belcher (Field Naturalists' Club, Geelong), Mr. D. 
M'Alpine, and several other prominent members of the Field 
Naturalists' Club of Victoria — in all 21 gentlemen.-f* (By a 
remarkable coincidence, this was the exact number of the 
founders of the now famous American Ornithologists' Union, 
started in 1883.) It was resolved that Dr. Ryan, Messrs. 
D. Le Souef, A. J. Campbell, G. A. Keartland, Robt. Hall, and 
J. Gabriel form a committee to consider the matter of a union 
fully, and bring up at an early date the result of its deliberations. 
This committee went to work, slowly but surely, with the en- 
couraging result that sufficient responses (including the gracious 
patronage of Their Royal Highnesses the Duke and Duchess 
of Cornwall and York) were received to warrant the committee 
in recommending that a union be constituted from the ist July, 
1901, with its principal planks the study and protection of birds, 
and that the first general meeting be held at Adelaide in October 
The Wombat, Oct., 1897, p. 6. t Signatures see Plate I. 
