No. I (1917) EDIBLE MOLLUSCS 13 



On the east coast, in the backwaters in the neighbourhood of 

 Madras, a certain amount of oyster flesh is collected and eaten by 

 the local Pariah population. Sometimes Muhammadans will have 

 some, but this appears to be done in imitation of the European 

 custom. In these places the bulk of the oysters consumed, as 

 already mentioned, is by the Europeans and Anglo-Indians of the 

 large towns. 



Further north, in Ganjam district, certain sections of the fishing 

 population make a limited use of the local oysters, particularly 

 those in the Sonapur backwater where the Bairavi women are 

 accustomed to visit the beds at low water, break open the shells 

 and carry away the flesh in chatties to use in their own curries. 



Seasons aud spawning. — The season when oysters are in market- 

 able condition depends upon the time of spawning and this in 

 turn is controlled by rainfall and sunshine. Heavy rains causing 

 flood water to enter backwaters in such amount as to greatly lower 

 the salinity of the water over the beds, invariably entail wide- 

 spread and immediate emission of the reproductive products in all 

 oysters where the gonads are well filled. Hence as the rainy 

 season differs on the two main coasts of India, there is a correspond- 

 ing divergence in the spawning maxima and in the marketable 

 season in these two localities. 



On the Malabar coast the chief spawning maximum occurs 

 about midsummer or even earlier, at the onset of the south-west 

 monsoon and the oysters are not again in condition till October or 

 November. From this time onwards they improve in quality till 

 about the end of March ; thenceforward till the final and complete 

 spatting at the end of May or early in June, there is a good deal of 

 irregular spatting induced by the hot weather then prevailing, 

 emphasized by the exposure and semi-drying of many of the oyster- 

 covered rocks during low water of the major spring tides. 

 Between March and June a considerable percentage of spent 

 oysters are always found in any number examined ; the gonads of 

 those that spawned early in March will be partly full again when 

 the floods arrive in June and these, after enduring the lowered 

 salinity of the water for a while, will at last emit their spawn though 

 perhaps only half mature. Long continued floods cause very 

 extensive mortality on the beds, and few survive except the small 

 number living on the bottom of deep channels. In these places 

 saline conditions appear to last much longer than on the surface, 



