Book Notices 519 



BOOK NOTICES. 



'The Canadian Oyster; Its Development, Environ- 

 ment and Culture," by Jos. Stafford, M.A., Ph.D., 

 Ottawa. The Mortimer, Co., Ltd., 1913. 



This volume is included in the report of the Com- 

 mittee on Fisheries, Game and Furbearing Animals, a 

 department of the Commission of Conservation of Can- 

 ada, to the Government of the Dominion. It deals with 

 a subject of great popular interest. There are many 

 among us who appreciate the succulent bivalve and we 

 are anxious that its continued production shall be se- 

 cured. 



The Natural History Society has been kept tolerably 

 well informed on the subject. Some years ago Professor 

 MacBride read an interesting paper before it, the result 

 of his observations at the Biological Station at Mal- 

 peque. Dr. Stafford has from time to time made com- 

 munications to the Society of his studies on the subject, 

 and last year Dr. Willey gave an interesting paper on 

 the Pacific Coast Oyster, Ostrea lurida. Dr. Stafford, in 

 this treatise, gives the results of his observations on the 

 Canadian Oyster, Ostrea Virginiana, up to the date of the 

 submission of the report, and we are indebted to him for 

 a considerable advance in the knowledge we have hither- 

 to had of the subject. 



He introduces the discussion of the matter in these 

 terms : " A knowledge of the normal development of a 

 young oyster from the egg is of fundamental importance 

 in formulating any national scheme of artificial propa- 

 gation, as well as in framing suitable laws for the pro- 

 tection and encouragement of the oyster industry as a 

 source of wealth to the country." He then goes on to 

 deplore that though this shellfish was well-known to the 

 ancient Greeks and Romans, and was greatly esteemed 

 by them and bon vivants all along the ages, "yet we have 

 not a single, concise, direct, intelligible, true and satis- 

 factory account of where, when and how an egg becomes 



