XC11 
Journal of Proceedings. 
In accordance with Rules III. and IV., nominations of new members o 
Council and officers for 1883 were made as follows :— 
The following members agreed to retire from the Council:—Mr. W. C. 
Barnes, Mr. Herbert Goss, Mr. N. Powell, Rev. J. Francis, Mr. F. G. 
Heath, and Mr. J. P. Hore. 
To fill the seats so rendered vacant, the following members were pro¬ 
posed for election into the Council, the proposals being duly seconded:— 
Dr. Cory, F.R.G.S., Mr. T. V. Holmes, F.G.S., Mr. John Hutchinson, 
Mr. Henry Laver, M.R.C.S., F.L.S., Mr. F. H. Yarley, F.R.A.S., and Mr. 
W. White. 
As officers for 1883 the Council recommended the following members : 
— President, Professor Boulger, F.L.S., F.G.S. ; Treasurer, Mr. Andrew 
Johnston, J.P., D.L. ; Secretary, Mr. William Cole ; Assistant-Secretary, 
Mr. Benjamin G. Cole; Librarian, Mr. Alfred Lockyer. 
The Secretary announced that the Council had authorized the sole use 
of the short title—“ The Essex Field Club in future in all publications 
of the Club, in order to avoid misquotation and misconception as to the 
objects and scope of the Society. [See Trans., vol. iii., p. 1, note .] 
Mr. R. M. Christy exhibited some shells of Clausilice for the purpose of 
ra ilin g attention to a supposed case of “ protective resemblance ” among 
Mollusea, and read the following note :— 
According to the lists of indigenous Mollusea we have six species of 
Clausilia in this country, but two of these ( C. parvula and C. solida) 
ought not, in my opinion, to be admitted. Of the habits of C. biplicata 
in this country I know nothing, but on the Continent it lives upon wet 
rocks. Of the remaining three species, C. rugosa may be described as 
very common, C. laminata as common, and C. rolphii as rare and local. 
It is a well-known fact that all three frequently live upon or under Beech 
trees. I have collected them all in such situations (the first two 
abundantly, and the last more sparingly) among the numerous clumps of 
beeches which fringe the northern edge of the South Downs. Now, the 
bud-cases of beech trees are in shape long and pointed, and in colour 
hazel-brown, thereby resembling very closely in these particulars, as well 
as in size, the shells of the Clausilice, so that at a glance the difference 
between the two might easily be overlooked, and it seems to me that 
there may be something in this fact more than mere coincidence. These 
sheaths or cases fall off the buds in spring, and throughout the sum m er 
thickly strew the ground below the trees where the Clausilice live among 
the dead leaves. I have brought specimens for exhibition, so that the 
resemblance may be the more easily seen. 
The President thought that the resemblance was not sufficiently exact 
to allow one to say off-hand that it was a case of protective resemblance. 
Did Mr. Christy know whether birds were in the habit of feeding upon 
species of the genus Clausilia ? The shells appeared to him as likely to 
prove very tough morsels. 
Mr. Christy remembered finding a shell of one species in the gizzard of 
a blackbird. 
The President, continuing, said it appeared to him necessary to show 
that this supposed resemblance was a protection from some enemy. He 
