86 NATURAL SCIENCE. Feb., 



been desirable that the author should have some more satis- 

 factory specimen than a metacarpus on which to make the 

 determination. 



Some interesting observations on the phylogeny of birds, in the 

 course of which the author states that he believes the ancestral types 

 of all the groups to have had keel-less sterna, will be read with 

 interest. 



Oysters. 



Dr. Bashford Dean, who was sent b}^ the United States Fish 

 Commission in 1891 to study the cultivation of the Oyster in Europe 

 and America, has just issued a " Report on the Present Methods of 

 Oyster Culture in France " (Bull. U.S. Fish Comm. for i8go, art. 14, 

 pp. 363-388, pis. Ixviii.-lxxviii.), and " The Physical and Biological 

 Characteristics of the Natural Oyster Grounds of South Carolina " 

 [Ibidem, art. 13, pp. 335-361, pis. Ixii.-lxvii.), published at Washing- 

 ton, 1892, The decreasing supply of the home markets, and the need 

 for information as to the means for keeping up the supply in the best 

 and most profitable manner, were the reasons for Dr. Dean's studies. 



In the first report quoted above special reference is made to the 

 difficulties which had to be surmounted by the French, and to the 

 very high state of perfection to which the cultivation of the oyster 

 has been brought, especially in the districts of Arcachon and Auray. 

 " Natural difficulties," he says, " have caused the French to study 

 division of labour in the industry ; to make, for example, one locality 

 furnish the seed, another to raise the oyster to maturity, a third to 

 flavour or colour it, and sometimes a fourth to prepare it for trans- 

 port. Under these conditions the growth of the industry has been 

 especially and almost entirely dependent upon the wise action of the 

 Government. The reservation of the natural grounds as State 

 property, and the forbidding of general public dredging, is generally 

 regarded as the keystone of French oyster-culture. These grounds— 

 once exhausted, now flourishing — are regarded as the permanent 

 capital of surroimding areas, whose profits, in the form of seed-oysters, 

 are shared by all alike." The importance of Coste's experiments and 

 deductions is warmly referred to, and the industry has become a 

 source of considerable revenue, both to the State and to the culturist. 

 The report goes into the full details of the culture, and is consider- 

 ably enriched by numerous reproductions of photographs of the 

 " pashs " taken by the author and others. 



In the second paper, Dr. Dean describes the celebrated " oyster 

 flats" of South Carolina, in which the oyster (" cats' tongues" or 

 "raccoons") may be said to grow wild. The flats on which these 

 oysters grow are acres in extent, and have the general appearance of 

 a low coral reef. Half the life of the oyster is spent in the air, and 

 half under the water. As these areas are mainly mud banks, the 



