THE NAUTILUS. 133 



We might translate it 'family of a the-turreted,' but the fact 

 remains that the Latin authors would not have said anything 

 like that. . . . Unless there exists some zoological reason for 

 preferring a word that would mean ' members of the family of 

 the thing that is provided with towers ' to one meaning ' mem- 

 bers of the Tower family,' I should much prefer the shorter 

 and more Latin (or may I say less wn-Latin?) Turridae.^ 



The facts therefore seem decisive that Turritidae is an impos- 

 sible construction as a direct derivative of Turris, and that 

 Turridae is correct and should be used. The spelling Turrinae 

 for the typical subfamily logically follows by the same rea- 



soning. 



REDLANDS, CALIFORNIA, December 29, 1919. 



ON CERTAIN OF LINK'S NAMES IN THE MITRIDAE, 



BY J. R. LE B. TOMLIN. 



The rarity of Link's work entitled Beschreib. Nat. Sammi. 

 Univ. Rostock (1807) is doubtless the reason why his specific 

 names are but little known. Coming as it does before Lamarck 

 or Dillwyn began to make their extensive contributions to no- 

 menclature, it will, I believe, eventually be found to have an- 

 ticipated these two authors in many cases. Link in the above 

 work lists 20 Mitras, of which the following are noteworthy: 



Pt. iii, p. 127. Valuta stictica Link; V. papalis B. Gmel., 

 3459; Mart, iv, 147, 1356. 



It is curious that this shell was not differentiated by any 

 18th century author. Most of them considered it a var. of 

 papalis; Bolten confused it with cardinalis. The synonymy is: 



1807. V. stictica Link. 



1811 (early in). Mitra abbotis Perry. 



July, 1811. Mitra pontificalia Lamarck. 



p. 127. Voluta digitalis Link; V. pcrtusa J. Gmel. 3458; 

 Chem. x, 151, 1432, 1433. 



This specific is generally ascribed to Dillwyn. Synonymy as 

 follows: 



