356 Letters, Extracts, and Notes. 



picture of the auatomical facts." Dr. Beddavd's " Structure 

 and Classification of Birds" was published six or seven years 

 later, but the references to the peroneals therein contained 

 are so much less adequate that it was unnecessary to mention 

 them. My object was to try to understand the relations of 

 the various modifications of the muscles and their distribution 

 in the whole group. For this purpose I found little in 

 Gadow and nothing in Beddard to assist me, and I dissected 

 the muscles in some 400 birds. If, however, the whole of 

 the facts had already been adequately recorded, I should have 

 been saved much time, but should still have had the paper 

 to write. Descriptive anatomy is only the raw material of 

 the contribution to ornithology of which the memoir in 

 question is an instalment. 



Yours very truly, 



P. Chalmeks Mitchell. 



Zoological Society of London, 

 2 Feb., 1914. 



Sir, — The allusion made by Mr. W. P. Pyeraft to the 

 injudicious action taken by certain Fishery Boards (' Ibis,' 

 1914, p. 142), who imagine that they are doing service by 

 advocating the slaughter of Cormorants and Gannets, gives 

 rise to a good deal of reflection. If the toll of fish which 

 these birds take is so serious, why are there still so many 

 fish in the sea? This seems a fair argument for the non- 

 advocates of slaughter, especially as the European Gannet 

 [Sula bassana) is believed to be on the increase. 



Will you permit me to communicate the following returns 

 — which indeed would seem almost incredible were they not 

 made on the best authority — of the celebrated Herring- 

 fishery at Great Yarmouth in this county, for 1913, They 

 are taken from the ofiicial figures, which the Harbour- 

 master is required to issue annually at each of the great 

 ports. The Herring season in the North Sea lasts approxi- 

 mately from September to December, and last year (1913) 

 it ended, as far as Yarmouth trawlers were concerned, on 

 December 20th. In thpsc three months eight hundred and 



