xcii 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. Varley, 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 Clausiliae for the purpose of
calling attention to a supposed case of " protective resemblance " among
Mollusca, and read the following note :—
According to the lists of indigenous Mollusca 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 0. 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 Clausiliae, 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 summer
thickly strew the ground below the trees where the Clausiliae 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