228 THE VOYAGE OF H.M.S. CHALLENGER. 



above, cylindrical below in the channel of the suture, which is axially impressed. Mouth 

 oblong, pointed and channelled above, slightly narrowed below. Outer Up thin, scarcely 

 prominent or arched, running out to a blunt point in front to the right, whence it is 

 obliquely truncated backwards to the point of the pillar with a deepish cut. Inner lip: 

 there is on the body a very thick prominent and irregular pad of glaze, which curves 

 round the straight point of the pillar and there is 4-plaited, and, with a sharply defined 

 edge, encircles the point of the shell. H. 0-26 in. B. 0-13. Penultimate whorl, height 

 0-035. Mouth, height 0-19, breadth 0'07. 



The low spire, very blunt apex, and four plaits on the pillar-pad distinguish this species from 

 Oliva rosalina, Duclos, or Oliva ruffasciata, Eeeve (which Dr Kobelt holds a&= Oliva mutica, Say), 

 or Oliva inconspicua, C. B. Ad. It is perhaps most like Oliva pusilla, C. B. Ad., which it 

 resembles in lowness of spire and angularity at suture ; but the spire is even lower than in that 

 species, and the body-whorl is more tumid. 



2. Ancilla, Lam., 1799. 



The name Ancilla was published by Lamarck in 1799 in his Prodrome d'une Nouvelle Classifi- 

 cation des Coquilles, Memoire de la Soci^te d'histoire Naturelle de Paris ; also, in 1801, Systeme des 

 Anim. s. vert., p. 73 ; also in the Annales du Musee of the same year, vol. i. p. 474 ; and, finally, 

 in 1809, in his Philosophie Zoologique, vol. i. p. 322. In 1805, Felix de Eoissy, in his continuation 

 of Montfort's Hist. Nat. des Moll. (Suites a Buffon), vol. v. p. 430, proposed Anaulax as a substitute 

 for Ancilla, on the ground that its French form (Ancille) was too like the French form (Ancyle) of 

 Ancylus. In 1811, Lamarck, under the influence of the same objection, proposed (Ann. du Musee, 

 vol. xvi. p. 305) for Ancilla to substitute Ancillaria, a change which has been largely accepted, and 

 is warmly defended by Deshayes (Anim. s. vert, de Paris, vol. iii. p. 531), who asserts the principle 

 that an author's right of priority entitles him to alter a name at his pleasure. Such a principle is 

 of course untenable, as the right of priority lies not in the author but in the name, which can only 

 be changed for sufficient reasons. That the reasons in this case are sufficient cannot be maintained, 

 based as they are exclusively on the conversational convenience of French malacologists, who can at 

 once obviate the confusion between Ancille and Ancyle by adopting for the latter the almost uni- 

 versal European pronunciation of Ankylus or Ankyle in French. But even if the French objection 

 to Ancilla be pressed, it must be remembered that our alternative for it is not Lamarck's later name 

 of Ancillaria, but Iloissy's Anaulax, which has been largely employed as a subgeneric title. 



Species. 



1. Ancilla {Anaulax) obtusa (Swains). •: 4. Ancilla (Anaulax) pyramidalis (Reeve). 



2. Ancilla (Anaulax) mucronata (Sow). 5. Ancilla (Anaulax) nana, n. sp. 



3. Ancilla (Anaulax) monhouzieri (Souv). 6. Ancilla (Amalda) oblonga (Sow). 



7. Ancilla (Dipsaccus) cingulata (Sow). 



