192 PROCEEDINGS OP THE ACADEMY OF [1898. 



negative and due to degeneration from the normal type of the group 

 to which it belongs. The characters of the latter, however, fully 

 justify us in separating, from the operculate Volutidce with their 

 calcareous nepionic shell and Buccinoid dentition, the family 

 Scaphellidce, destitute of an operculum, with a membranous nepionic 

 shell and the peculiar dentition above described. This latter group 

 will include Caricella, Scaphella, Cymbiola, Eopsephcea, Aurinia, 

 Halia, Volutomitra and their allies. 



The recent Halia has been dredged along the eastern margin of 

 the Atlantic from the Bay of Biscay to Senegal. The genus is re- 

 presented in the Pliocene of Italy by one or two forms which have 

 received distinct specific names. The type was first named by 

 Meuschen in the Museum Gronovianum in 1778, and was erected 

 into a separate genus by Risso in 1826. 



