98 MADRAS FISHERIES BULLETIN VOL. XIV, 



employed exclusively upon this branch of the department's 

 activities. A clear idea of the utility of this work is obtained by 

 an examination of the value of the specimens supplied during the 

 six years since its inception, namely : — 



RS. RS. 



1915-16 

 1916-17 

 1917-18 



1,258 



I,6i8 

 3,131 



The unbroken rise in the annual value of the supplies bespeaks 

 not only increasing appreciation by the educational world of 

 India, but also a greatly widened and more solid foundation of 

 the zoological training now current in our colleges. 



The improvement of school museums is also amongst our aims. 

 In very few instances are existing collections of any practical 

 value; especially is this true of the natural history exhibits. If 

 the school be in a coast town, a jumble of unnamed shells with 

 odis and ends of the flotsam and jetsam of the sea, offends the 

 eye of the zoologist, by reason of its utter uselessness. What 

 possible educational value can lie in a collection of shells gathered 

 haphazard and exhibited without order or explanation.-* 



To afford a remedy in part for this unsatisfactory state of 

 affairs in secondary schools, I arranged some time ago for the 

 preparation of compact glazed wall-cases containing collections 

 illustrative of the common types of the molluscs and crustaceans 

 characteristic of Indian seas. The Director of Public Instruction 

 welcomed the idea, but before ordering a large supply of these 

 collections, desired that descriptive hand-books should be pre- 

 pared ; this is obviously the only proper way of promoting a true 

 interest in branches of zoology represented bv these collections 

 and I agreed willingly. 



The notes which follow are the first outcome of this arrange- 

 ment, but the scope has been widened somewhat to make them 

 of use to that large body of people who take interest in the things 

 they find on the shore and desire to know some of the more 

 interesting and outstanding facts in their life-histories. 



With the exception of a few figures borrowed from various 

 sources and duly acknowledged, the illustrations are all original 

 and have been sketched specially for this paper by my assistants 

 Mr. M. Ramaswami Nayudu, B.A., and Mr. K. R. Samuel, to whom 



