THE NAUTILUS. 125 



limitless. I can only faintly express once for all my feeling of ap- 

 preciation to each and every one of them. 



In Los Angeles and its vicinity by common consent the collection 

 of Mr, and Mrs. T. S. Oldroyd, of Signal Hill, has no equal. For 

 years they have been gathering the shells of the coast and sparing 

 no pains to correctly name and attractively arrange them. They 

 have also by exchange and otherwise gathered a fine series of exotic 

 shells. It is hoped that this entire collection will before long find a 

 place in the fine new fireproof building Los Angeles is erecting as a 

 public museum. It would be a calamity if the Oldroyd shells, now 

 in a frame building far from any means of rescue, should much 

 longer be subjected to the risk of destruction by fire. The readers 

 of the NAUTILUS are well aware of the large number of new species, 

 and species new to the region which have become known through 

 the researches of Mr. and Mrs. Oldroyd, and have been described or 

 noticed in this journal during a long series of years. 



Mr. Herbert N. Lowe, of Long Beach, has gathered an interest- 

 ing collection where I noted especially large and fine specimens of 

 the Williamia vernalis from San Nicolas Island, and some remark- 

 ably distorted specimens of Neverita recluziana. 



In the collection of Mrs. Zech, of Long Beach, I noticed a speci- 

 men of Lottia gigantia 105x85 millimeters in dimensions; a fine 

 specimen from Monterey of the rare Ovula vidleri Sby. (1881) and 

 a large suite of 0. barbarensis Dall, both from Newport, Cal. In 

 this as in most of the other local collections were remarkably large 

 and fine Acmcea scabra, persona and spectrum from the new govern- 

 ment breakwater at San Pedro, which is also the locality for re- 

 markably clean and large Omphalius aureotinctus and Calliostoma 

 supragranosum. A study of a very large number of the latter species 

 indicates that C. splendens Cpr. may have to be reduced to varietal 

 rank. Miss Zech has personally picked up on Vashon Island, 

 Puget Sound, a specimen of Chione jhictifraga, doubtless carried 

 there in ballast by some of the lumber vessels returning from the 

 South. 



In the collection of Mrs. Eshnaur at Terminal Island, was a speci- 

 men of the curious convex, fan-shaped variety holzneri Hemphill, of 

 Haliotis cracherodii , from five miles south of Redondo, collected by 

 Mr. Eshnaur. Most of the specimens so far obtained of this form 

 are reported to have come from the Pacific coast of Lower Cali- 



