102 2. Notes, 33 



Haliday collection was also foniul in Wicklow, as we know that he collected 

 a good deal in that connt\'. 



J.. N. Halbert. 

 National Museum, Dublin. 



British Oysters, Past and Present. 



The above is the title of an exhaustive paper by Alfred Bell on the 

 subject of the variation of the shell of oysters. It appeared in the Essex 

 Naturalist, vol. xix, 1921, and deals with the species found in the Britisii 

 and Irish marine area. A few supplementary notes were afterwards 

 published in the same journal. Mr. Bell's statement (p. i88) that the 

 Irish Oyster fisheries have fallen off past recovery is surely too sweeping. 

 He quotes Da Costa who wrote at the end of the i8th century about the 

 past oyster supply of Ireland noting particularly a bed of rock oysters 

 as large as horseshoes at Howth, Ireland's Eye and Malahide, which 

 were said to have been " green-finned and of a delicate flavour." What 

 age an oyster can attain has never been definitely established, but Mr. 

 Bell is of opinion that the limit of age is certainly more than 30 years. 



Everyone knows that the shell of the common oyster {Ostrea edulis) 

 is very variable and that several well-marked varieties have been noted 

 and recorded from Irish waters. Mr. Bell found the variety parasitica 

 of Turton in the Irish estuarine clays. He also described two new 

 varieties, viz., vars. celtica and estuarii both of which occur on the Irish 

 coast. The latter variety is that alluded to by R. LI. Praeger as being 

 found in the estuarine clays of the North-East of Ireland. 



Only two species of oysters were recognised hitherto in the Irish 

 marine area (see A. R. Nichols — " List of the Marine Mollusca of Ireland "). 

 Mr. Bell now describes eight new species of British oysters and several 

 others which had not so far been reported from the British marine area. 

 Some Irish examples are doubtfully referred to Ostrea atlantica, Bell. 

 He is of opinion that the oyster figured by Miss Massy {Fisheries of Ireland 

 Scient. Invest., igr's) as a variety of Ostrea edulis is Ostrea scaeva, 

 Monterosato. A ]\Iediterranean oyster [Ostrea cockleai, Poli) was once 

 dredged off the west coast of Ireland during the " Porcupine " Expedition. 

 According to Mr. Bell it is common in the Fast Anglian Crag. Several 

 others of his new species should occur in the Irish marine area. 



Bird Protection in Ulster. 



We are glad to note the formation in Belfast of an " Ulster Society 

 for the Protection of Birds." The Secretary is Mr. P. F. Neill, 3-, 

 Candahar Street, Belfast, with Messrs. Nevin H. Foster and J. A. S. 

 Stendall as scientific coadjutors. The Dublin society founded seventeen 

 years ago for the same purpose has done such excellent work that we 

 may look forward to equally useful activities in the North. Possibly, 

 , according to prevailing fashion, they will be able to take over northern 

 functions hitherto carried out by the Dublin organization, such as the 

 protection of the Red-throated Diver in Donegal. 



