224 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



Banks, off the coast of Africa, and described as Agulhasia 

 davidsoni. Mr. Dall, of the Smithsonian Institution, who has 

 been making a special study of the brachiopods, finds reason 

 to believe that this animal is not a new form, but simply an 

 embryonic or immature stage of the genus Terebratidina. 

 13 A, Mb. 15, HO. 



WORK OX EUROPEAN MOLLUSCA. 



Mr. Gwyn Jeffreys, well known for his book on British 

 shells, and for his connection with the recent deep-sea dredg- 

 ings of the British Commission, announces a work on the 

 mollusca of the European seas. This will, it is hoped, furnish 

 especially the means for a satisfactory comparison of the fau- 

 na of that part of the world with that of the Atlantic coast 

 of North America a field which has been explored with so 

 much thoroughness by Dr. Stimpson, Professor Verrill, Count 

 Pourtales, and other American naturalists. 15 A, October 

 15,504. 



COLORS OF FOSSIL SHELLS. 



In an inquiry into the possibility of determining the origi- 

 nal colors of fossil shells, by Kayser, it was found that reds 

 w r ere more durable than any other color, this tint being ap- 

 preciable in forms where their nearest living allies were of 

 somewhat similar shades. 19 C, August 5, 252. 



TRANSVERSELY STRIATED MUSCULAR FIBRE IN MOLLUSCA. 



Transversely striated fibre is universal in the voluntary 

 muscles of vertebrates, insects, and crustaceans. In the other 

 departments of invertebrates it is very rare, and seems usual- 

 ly associated with muscles performing rapid voluntary mo- 

 tions. Among the mollusks it has been known in a few spe- 

 cies of the classes of Tunicata, Brachiopoda, Polyzoa, and 

 Conchifera respectively. Mr. W. II. Dall has recently dis- 

 covered transversely striated muscle in the genus Acmma, be- 

 longing to the class Gasterop>oda, so that there remains but 

 one class among the mollusca, the Cephalopoda, in which it is 

 yet unknown. This is, strangely enough, the most highly 

 organized of any of the groups of the subkingdom mollusca. 

 Similar muscles are found in a few worms, and in a species of 

 sea-anemone, or Actinia. . 



