198 The Ottawa Naturalist. [January 



REPORT OF THE ZOOLOGICAL BRANCH, 1907. 



To the Cowicil of the Ottawa Field Naturalists' Club: 



In presenting the Report of this Branch of the Club's work 

 for 1907 your leaders have to announce that the interest manifest 

 in the study of zoology, as evidenced at the Club's excursions 

 and in the contributions published in The Ottawa Naturalist, 

 shews no signs of diminution. In the first place the members 

 of the Branch feel bound to record their pleasure at the erection 

 of a splendid new zoological station by the Dominion Govern- 

 ment at St. Andrew's, N.B., and the publication in connection 

 therewith of a scientific report which includes a number of 

 valuable papers on Marine Biology, etc., by eminent Canadian 

 Zoologists. A new station of a similar character is now being 

 completed at Departure Bay on the British Columbia coast in 

 the vicinity of one of the richest marine zoological grounds in the 

 Pacific waters perhaps one of the richest in the world. Prom- 

 inence was given to these marine researches at the May meeting 

 of the Royal Society, when Professor Prince, one of our leaders, 

 gave an address on Canadian Marine Biology, and zoological 

 subjects were dealt with in a number of able papers. The 

 subject of abnormalities in various animals was discussed at the 

 same meeting, and in connection therewith it may be stated that 

 Professor Prince has secured a remarkable specimen of a small 

 sturgeon in wdiich the long and powerful tail is absent, and in 

 the absence of a true caudal member the anal fin has grown 

 round the blunt terminal stump and acts vicariously as a tail. 

 The same gentleman obtained a specimen of Helix which 

 had evidently taken up a permanent position in a niche in the 

 smooth bark of a wild cherry tree. That the snail moved a little 

 was plain from a small patch of dried glistening mucus below the 

 niche; but as the smooth cuticle of the tree had apparently 

 grown over the shell of the Uving animal, it appeared as a small 

 protuberance. The patch of mucus alone revealed the fact 

 that the small rounded prominence like a button was the shell 

 of a living snail. If the marine crabs like I iiachus a.re protected 

 by overgrowths of sea-weeds on their backs, this land Helix 

 in the case mentioned was as effectually protected. Professor 

 Sydney Hickson says: "If the plants' be artificially scraped 

 off the crab will go in search of fresh ones .... and then deliber- 

 ately decorate the carapace with them as before. There are 

 some moll-asks that artificially decorate themselves wnth little 

 shells and other objects in such manner as to completely hide 

 their general form. ... In both these cases it is clear that the 

 reason of the phenomena described is that of affording a covering 



