The Slug.—Amateur gardeners who at this time of the year particularly bewailed the ravages of slugs would be surprised to learn that there was at least one species of slug which was a particular friend of the gardener. A specimen was exhibited which, to use the semi-jocular remark of Mr. Travers, was a “very useful beast indeed.” It was a carnivorous slug, and fed on the blights which frequented tender plants, and which were very difficult to get rid of by other means without injuring the plants. Slugs of this sort would be a blessing to many sufferers from blight-pests. Sir Walter Buller said he had listened with interest to Sir James Sector's account of the two specimens of kohoperoa on the table. Sir James Hector was wrong, however, in supposing that the predatory character of Eudynamys taitensis was a new discovery. Thirty years ago he had himself found in the stomach of one of these birds a small fledgling that had evidently been robbed from a nest. On another occasion he had surprised one of these cuckoos carrying off in its beak a tui's egg. He understood Sir James Hector to say that the bodies found in the stomachs of the two birds now on the table were those of the grey warbler—Gerygone flaviventris—nestlings with wing-feathers just sprouting. If so, this was very curious, because, as was well known, this little bird performed the duty of foster parent to both the koheperoa and the shining cuckoo, two species belonging to very different genera. The warbler built a pretty pensile nest, with the entrance near the top, protected by a kind of porch. It would seem in this case that the predatory cuckoo had devoured the rightful occupants before appropriating the nest and depositing its egg. His impression was that the nestling which the stomach of his bird contained was a very young tui At any rate, he was sure it was the young of a native bird, for at that time the country had not become overrun as now with the introduced species for which we had to thank the mistaken zeal of our acclimatisation societies. Annual Meeting: 14th March, 1899. Sir W. L. Buller, Vice-president, in the chair.

Abstract Of Annual Report. The Council regret having to report the loss by death of no less than five valued members—viz.: the late Thomas Kirk, W. M. Maskell, John Buchanan, C. Hulke, and Rev. W. Colenso. The balance-sheet showed that the receipts for the year, including the balance carried forward from last year, amount to £194 6s. 5d., and the expenditure to £95 4s. 9d., leaving a balance in hand of £99 1s. 8d., to which has to be added the sum of £33 9s. 8d. lodged in the bank at interest as a Research Fund, making a total balance of £132 11s. 4d.

Election Of Officers For 1899.—President—E. Tregear; Vice-presidents—G. V. Hudson, Sir James Hector; Council—R. Xi. Mestayer, H. B. Kirk, G. Denton, M. Chapman, E. F. Hawthorne, Sir W. Buller, B. M. Molineaux; Secretary and Treasurer—R. B. Gore; Auditor—T. King.

The Chairman drew attention to the loss the Society had sustained by the death of the late Rev. W. Colenso, and Sir James Hector moved, That a record be made in the minutes of the great services rendered by the deceased gentleman. In doing so he said the deceased had been an intimate friend of his