THE NAUTILUS. 107 



NOTES. 



Canadian oysters. — It is reported from Halifax that there is 

 danger that the famous oyster-beds of Prince Edward Island, which 

 supply the Malpeques, the great favorites in the leading Canadian 

 markets, will be wholly exhausted in ten years at the present rate of 

 fishing. 



This is in part due to the fact that nearly all the Canadian oysters 

 are shipped in the shell. In the United States the fishermen shell 

 a great many of the oysters and return the shells to the beds, which 

 is a distinct aid to propagation. 



The Canadian government is exerting itself in restocking the 

 oyster beds which, however, are being depleted rapidly — Boston 

 Globe. 



Paludestrina salsa, Pils., described in the December Naut- 

 ilus, occurs abundantly at Branford, Conn. At one locality, 3 miles 

 from the Sound where a brook enters the marsh it occurs on stones 

 and decaying vegetable matter. The form here is more slender than 

 the type. Another locality reveals it in ditches in the marsh near the 

 railroad. Here it is larger than the Cohasset form, and it occurs on 

 the vegetation floating in the ditch — Henry W. Winkley. 



Note on Vitrina Pfeifferi Deshayes. This species is cited 

 in Pfeiffer's Mod. Heliceorum Viventium, vol. iii, p. 7, 1853. I did 

 not look it up further, but added the date, which Dr. Pilsbry's criti- 

 cal eye detected as improbable, under the impression that the citation 

 referred to Ferussac's " Prodrome" of 1822. On a second inspec- 

 tion I suspect that Pfeiffer's " Fer. Lim." refers to the " Histoire des 

 Moll. Terrestres," a work not accessible to me here, but to which 

 Deshayes made contributions, 1839-41.* Deshayes gives exactly 

 the same references as Pfeiffer, in his MS. catalogue of Vitrina in 

 my possession, and as the name had entered into literature a second 

 time, as early as 1853, there can be no doubt as to its being prior to 

 Newcomb's pfeifferi of 1861. 



I may add for the benefit of those who ma)' like to make correc- 



* The name Vitrina pfeifferi was proposed by Deshayes in Ferussac's Histoire, 

 ii, p. 9G 24 , 1851, in the text under V. angularis, for Borne figures in Fern- 

 plate 8 F, pp. 18-22, of a Vitrina supposed to be new, but which Deshayes had 

 never seen. There is no statement of locality. It was omitted from the index 

 of the work, and has not been recognized by any subsequeut author. The figures 

 look like almost auy Vitrina. — Ed. 



