Notes and Comments. 155 
to whom the perfecting of the local museum should be an ideal 
desire. Its title explains the main purpose for which it has 
been published. Incidentally it does a great deal more. Going 
systematically through the collection in the Hull Museum 
(which we gather has been made by Mr. Woods himself) the 
author enumerates which families are represented and by what 
species, giving short notes where necessary ; and furnishes a 
running commentary on previously published lists of Yorkshire 
Mollusca, concluding with a list of species which have been 
recorded but are not in the collection. | We are thus able to 
judge how far it is from being complete, because apart from the 
species unrepresented, Mr. Woods points out such as are repre- 
sented only by young or immature examples. With this guide 
before them there is every inducement for coast naturalists to 
assist in making the Hull Museum a fully representative col- 
lection of the various stages of every species that may occur 
on the Yorkshire Coast.. That a collector residing so far 
away from it should be able to make such an excellent con- 
tribution to the subject, gives good ground for the belief that 
an equally enthusiastic one living near the coast would, in a 
short time, fill up most of the gaps referred to.—E.G.B. 
THE PENNANT COLLECTION. 
We recently referred to the gift to the nation of the Pennant 
zoological collection. | We since learn from Nature that 
among the birds are two very interesting specimens of the 
Capercaillie. These probably represent the old British stock, 
which became extinct in Scotland about 1760. If so, they are 
its only known representatives. ‘Further examination may 
prove the right of the British bird to rank as a distinct race. 
The capercaillies now found in certain parts of Scotland are 
the descendants of Scandinavian birds introduced about 1837 
by the Marquis of Breadalbane at Taymouth Castle. : 
It is stated that Mr. E. Smith has found that a British snail 
described by Pennant as Helix refescens turns out to be a 
young specimen of H. arbustorum. For the British species, 
which has hitherto been incorrectly identified with H. rufescens, 
the name H. montana is available.’ 
FAUNISTIC WORK IN THE ANTIPODES. 
From a former Editor of The Naturalist, Mr. E. R. Waite, 
we received some time ago three well-illustrated monographs 
on the birds, fishes, and mammals, respectively, of the Sub- 
antartic Islands of New Zealand. Mr. Waite is now the 
Curator of the Canterbury Museum in New Zealand, and is 
apparently carrying out his work there with the same thor- 
oughness and enthusiasm that he did when in Yorkshire. 
1913 April t. 
