OTAGO INSTITUTE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 10622, 14 October 1896, Page 4

OTAGO INSTITUTE.

A meeting of tbe Otsgo Institute was held last evening at tbe Museum, Mr A. Hamilton (preddcut) occupied the chair and there was a good attendance. THK LATE BARON YON MOLLER. The Chairman said tbe coancil had requested him to move —''That this institute has heard witb profound regret of the death of the distinguished botanist, Baron Ferdinand yon Muller, find wishes to place on record its ssnae bf his eminent service* to science." Mr, G. M. Thomson seconded the motion, and said Baron yon Miiller's service-) to botany were so well known and were of so much importance to New Zealand botany that it was merely a matter of tbe barest courtosy on the pare of the iesfcilura to pass such a resolution. Many of tham remembered with pleasure the visit of Buron yon Muller to New Zealand when he was president of , ths Australasian Association for the Advancement of Scieuce, when those who had corresponded with him for many.years had the privilege of his acquaintance. The motion whs carried unanimously. FOSSIL REMAINS. Mr G. M. Thomson exhibited some fossil remains obtained by Mr Li-siia Reynoldj out of a mining claim at St. B.ith-ns. Tbe tonsils occurred in a bed of hard clay whicb was overlaid by 30fc or 4-Oft oF lacustrine (murine ?)

clays. They consisted of leaves and esp-jciilly fruit capsules of a species of Hakna. The genus H*kea belonged to tbs order Pcoteacew, and was at present confined to An^traiis, wher.-i about 100 species ara.known. Of these 65 had ouly bnen found hitherto ia West Au.tiali*. The occurrence of thi genus iv Now ZaaUud in Tertiary times wss of great iutarwst in its bearing on questions of geographical distribution. liIKDS IN THK WAITATI VALLEY. Mr A. Wilson, in ths course of an interesting paper on i.be above subject, directed attention to the dauger of tbe estetmiaatiou of different types of native birds. The ground parrot, the kiwi, and the vreka were, he sr.id, ciirtaiuly docimod, and not even sequestration on outlying islands would save them, but stiilttie number of species to be found in and near Duaedin w»8 very largo. His notes ou tha birds iv the Waitati/V*Ucy were made on two visits of j observation in May 1895, and in' a felicitous manner 'he 'described what ha had seen and j hesrd than, enumerating the English tbriuh, j tha tui, the bellbird, the eauary, the yellow- | bro.ioted tit, the bush robin, the pied and black fantails, the rifleman, the grey warbler, tha wax eye, the paroquet, tho New Zealand pigeon, and tbe barrier as tbe birds he found iv the locality. RKCENT ADDITIONS TO THE'JHISKL'AI. Dr Paukbr exhibited and explained a number of recent additions to the Museum. Included in - those was a fosiil sproluien showing a>. large . number of terairkably perfect sharks' teeth, which had been iouud at Waihola ,iv limestone and bnen sent Homo aud determined by Mr J. AY. • Divies, t'^ie distinguished palre.intolngist, as "Oxyrhinavon hawsci"; 'tho,first speeimeu of tha Stewart Island kiwi—the largest known species of kiwi—that had'been obtained for tho Museum; two stuifed fishes; a series of alcoholic specimens received a short time ago frum the Indiau mu-eum at Calcutta in exchange for New Zealand specimens, all being the results of (be ludian marine survey, tbe work of which was to. dredge and collect

specimens iv the Indian Ocean, whereby a large number ot extrumely interesting deepsea or abyssal for-ns had beeu obtained *, recently mounted specimens of skeletons for educational purposes, and a case of examples of novel methods of preserving perishable and cartilaginous specimens.