Traill's List of Orkney Mollusca, with special reference to Pinna Fragilis

Edinburgh Encyclopaedia (1830), there is one section devoted to Natural History.'This contains a catalogue of marine animals listed under the headings Pisces, Crustacea, Vermes and Zoophyta.Under Vermes are listed 58 species of Mollusca.This adds 35 species to those in Wallace's list of 1700, which enumerated 52.Eighteen species given in Wallace's list, however, do not appear in that of Traill.The list is a compilation.No authorities are given, though mention in the Bibliography of Wallace's Description, Low's Tour and MS.notes and drawings, Neill's Tour and "' Various MS.Notes "' show that for his general material he was largely indebted to these earlier naturalists.In an undated letter to Mr. Paton of Edinburgh, the Rev. George Low, shortly before his death in 1795, complains of extensive pirating from his unpublished MS., citing among other instances this article in the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia.It is only fair to add, however, that due acknowledgment is made by 'Traill, both in the Bibliography and in the general text, of his debt to Low. * I have made a careful scrutiny of available literary references to Low's wide range of interests, which included mammals, birds, fishes, insects and plants, but cannot discover any particular reference to shells save a chance notice of pearl ' muscles' and ' oysters'.His MS. " Microscopical Observations '', "' full of beautiful drawings by that ingenious author '' (which include two crustaceans, Monoculus quadricornis and M. conchaceus, and another " which is probably non-descript ''), appear to be confined to non-molluscan forms.