PRESIDENT S ADDRESS. 
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attended by dry weather; its circuit took in West Australia, and 
its single naturalist had to divide his attention between botany 
and zoology. 
There was, therefore, ample scope for a well-organised attempt 
to throw more light on the natural history of this remarkable 
tract of Australia. At the Adelaide Meeting of the Australasian 
Association, Prof. Tate, in his Presidential Address, expressed 
the earnest hope that " a systematic exploration of some well- 
known area, such as the MacDonnell Ranges," might become 
possible on the part of a well-known South Australian patron of 
exploration "asa crowning effort to unfold some of the mysteries 
of our dry interior." Not quite in the way Professor Tate had in 
his mind, but for practical purposes in an equally satisfactory 
way, through the liberality of Mr. Horn, the attempt was shortly 
afterwards made. And with what conspicuous success we may 
judge from the first instalment of the Report of the Expedition — 
Part ii. Zoology (4to. pp. 1-431, with 22 plates), edited by Professor 
Baldwin Spencer, recently issued. To this important work some 
little attention may worthily be devoted. 
Leaving out of consideration the Hymenoptera (other than the 
Honey Ants) and the Hemiptera, the returns for which are not 
completed, we find that the Horn Expedition has added some 164 
new species (Vertebrates 30, Invertebrates 134) to the general 
fauna of Australia. Taking all things into consideration this is 
a very substantial gain. Central Australia is not a region which 
could be expected to yield a varied fauna very rich in species. 
Some groups, well represented in other parts of Australia, but 
requiring a more or less humid environment, seem here to be 
wholly wanting, or but feebly represented. 
As a contribution to the fauna of a particular circumscribed 
area of the Continent — the central portion of the Eremian Region, 
Larapintine Region as Prof. Tate now proposes to call it — 
the results are even more important. Again, leaving out of 
consideration the Hymenoptera (other than the Honey Ants) and 
the Hemiptera, we find a total of between five aud six hundred 
species (Vertebrates 177, Invertebrates 358) assigned to it. This 
