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. BasHrorD Dean, who was sent by 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 1890, art. 14, 
pp. 363-388, pls. Ixviii.Ixxviii.), and “‘ The Physical and Biological 
Characteristics of the Natural Oyster Grounds of South Carolina ” 
(Ibidem, art. 13, pp. 335-361, pls. Ixii.Ixvii.), 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 surrounding 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 coralreef, Half the life of the oyster is spent in the air, and 
half under the water. As these areas are mainly mud banks, the 
