Australtan Paturalist- 
You 1 CAPRUL, 1905 awe 10, 
NOTE.—Members having any matter of interest suitable for publication 
in these pages are requested to communicate with the Hditor. 
Orpinary Mertinc.—The Ordinary Monthly Meeting was 
held in the Board Room, 82 Pitt Street, on Thursday evening, 
February 6th, 1908, Mr. D. G. Stead, Vice-President, in the 
chair. 
Parer.—Mr. W. J. Rainbow, F.L.S., F.H.S., read an interest- 
ing paper—‘ Notes on Some Aquatic Insects,” in which he 
traced the evolution of aquatic forms from terrestrial insects. 
The paper was illustrated by numerous diagrams and speci- 
mens. 
Orpinary Mertinc.—The Ordinary Monthly Meeting was 
held in.the Board Room, 82 Pitt Street, on Thursday evening, 
March.dth, 1908, the President, Mr. 8. J. Johnston, B.A.,B.Sc., 
in the chair. : 
Nominations.— Messrs. G. H. Johnson, Wiseman, and Moreau 
were nominated for membership. 
Parpr.—Mr. A. F. Basset Hull read a paper on “‘ Chitons and 
Chiton Collecting,” illustrating his remarks with a very fine 
series of specimens, comprising all the varieties recorded on the 
New South Wales coast between La Perouse and Barrenjoey. 
CHITONS. 
(Paper by Mr, A. F. Basset Huil). 
It is not my intention to enter upon a learned and 
scientific disquisition upon the Polyplacophora, or many plate 
bearers, partly because to do so would occupy almost as many 
nights as the Arabian Nights entertainments, and also 
because I am not qualified to do more than give you a brief 
sketch of the Port Jackson Chitons, anda few hints which 
may enable you to reap some of the abundant rewards that 
have resulted from my two years’ study of these shells in 
their native haunts. 
The order Polyplacophora embraces the majority of the 
multivalye mollusks; the shells of this order consist normally 
of eight plates or valves, more or less overlapping, bound 
together by a leathery girdle. The valves may be easily 
separated by boiling in a weak solution of caustic soda, and 
when thus disarticulated, the valves will be seen to be of three 
