MOLUJSCA. IIKDLKT. 65 



IF. -MOLLUSC A. 



1. From the GREAT AUSTRALIAN BIGHT. 



The following notes are based on a parcel of shells trawled in 

 the Great Australian Bight, between E. Long. 126 and 129., 

 in depths of from eighty to a hundred and twenty fathoms, 

 during February, March and April of the present year (1913). 

 This repeated a series collected a little to the eastward in the 

 previous year and on which Dr. J. C. Verco has furnished an 

 excellent and beautifully illustrated report. 1 Only shells of 

 large size are retained by the meshes of the trawl, so that the 

 consignment contained comparatively little material for dis- 

 cussion. 



CHAROXIA XODIFERA, car. EUCMA, var. nov. 

 (Plate viii., fig. 1.) 



Triton nod if '!- it in, Lamarck, Hist. Xat. Anim. s. Vert., V IT 

 1822, p. 178. ' 



There was a shell which quaint old Humphrey called " the 

 red and brown clouded Trompet from New South Wales." This, 

 for nearly a century, authors continuously, from Chemnitz to 

 Angas, had agreed to distinguish from the Mediterranean 

 Conch-shell. But on the contrary, Tryon 2 united the larger, 

 nodose, buff and brown European Triton nodiferum to the com- 

 paratively small, broad, smooth and reddish Australian Triton 

 australe (=Septa rubicunda, Perry, 1811). His authority has 

 been accepted by most Australian Conchologists such as 

 Hntton, Tate, Pritchard, Gatliff and Verco. Yet it seems to me 

 that the other view, as expressed in the " Challenger " Report, 

 was correct, and that the difference in size, shape, colour and 

 sculpture, entitled ( '. itndifera to be held apart. Confusion 

 of nomenclature has obscured the references in literature, but it 

 appears that the territory of C. rubicunda is South-east 

 Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand and the Kermadec Islands. 

 Although as a synonym of C. rubicunda Australian lists have 

 included C. nodi f era by mistake, yet as an independent species 



1 Verco Trans. Roy. Soc. S. Austr., 1912, pp. 206-231. pis. x.-xvi. 



2 Tryon Mail. Conch., iii., 1881, p. 10. 



