Capt. Portlock on the genus Cardinia, 343 



With respect to the species of Cyanocitta which I supposed to 

 be new, and which I denominated C. superciliosa, the synonyms 

 quoted in Mr. Gray^s work under C. ultramarina have induced 

 me to consult the ^ Zoology of Capt. Beechey^s Voyage/ and I 

 there find the species in question figured and described by Mr. 

 Vigors under the name of Garrulus calif ornicus. The distinctions 

 between it and C. ultramarina of Mexico [Garrulus sordidus, 

 Swains.) are there correctly pointed out, although all subsequent 

 authors have continued to unite these two species. My proposed 

 specific name of superciliosa must therefore give way to Mr. Vi- 

 gors^s prior appellation of californica, and the extreme difficulty 

 of obtaining ready access to every zoological work must be my 

 apology for having added one more to the ten or twelve thousand 

 superfiuous specific synonyms which already exist in ornithology 

 alone. 



I may add that the " Pica Sieberi " of Wagler is certainly a 

 synonym of C. ultramarina, not a distinct species as Mr. Gray 

 makes it. 



L. — Note on Mr. H.E. Strickland's Paper on the genus Cardinia 

 [Agassiz). By Capt. Portlock, R.E. 



Corfu, March 11, 1845. 

 The paper of Mr. Strickland* contains this passage : " Some au- 

 thors have been disposed to extend the geological range of this 

 genus, by including in it those species from the coal-measures 

 which Sowerby and most other palaeontologists have regarded as 

 true Unionida. Whether Agassiz originally proposed this exten- 

 sion of the genus I am not aware, having never yet been able to 

 meet with his translation of the ' Mineral Conchology,' in which 

 the group is first defined; but in his last work on the subject, 

 the ' Etudes critiques sur les Mollusques fossiles,' he seems to 

 regard Cardinia as exclusively confined to the lias and lower 

 oolite." 



Having before me the German translation by Agassiz of the 

 ' Mineral Conchology,' I am enabled to remove this doubt of 

 Mr. Strickland, and to render his history of the new genus Car^ 

 dinia complete. 



To the generic description of the genus Unio (plate 33, Min. 

 Conch.) Sowerby appended this remark : " Several species of this 

 genus are abundaift in the iron-stone bed of Derbyshire, called the 

 mussel- band," &c. ; and at this passage occurs Agassiz' fii'st note 

 upon the subject, the words of which are : "These bivalves from 

 the stone-coal formation which have been classed by Sowerby in 

 the genus Unio are very difi'erent from it, as I have satisfied my- 

 * Annals, vol. xiv. p. 100. 



