i 



Br. J. E. Gray on the genm Proserpina. 181 



that I am acquainted with that much resembles it in colouring. The 

 rectrices are ten in number. 



Mr. Ey ton's S. modesta, described in * Contributions to Ornitho- 

 logy' (1851, p. 159), of which the types are in his collection, is one 

 of a small group of species from Bolivia, Chili and Patagonia, con- 

 sisting of S.fiamgularis, Gould, 8. sordida. Less, and S. hrunnea^ 

 Gould ; but I am doubtful whether all the four are really specifically 

 distinct. 



Professor Reichenbach, in his ' Handbuch der Speciellen Ornitho- 

 loyie,' has chopped up the genus Synailaxis into seven or eight 

 different sections. Some of these ought no doubt to be adopted, 

 but the Professor has unfortunately referred some of the most closely 

 aUied species to different sections, and I think it better therefore to 

 continue the employment of the old name for the whole of them, 

 until a more accurate revision and arrangement of the whole of the 

 species can be made. 



On the Position of the Genus Proserpina in the 



System, and a Description of its Dentition. 



By Dr. J. E. Gray, F.R.S., P.B.S., etc. 



In the Synopsis of the British Museum for 1840 (p. 129), I 

 mention amongst the genera of Helicidce which have a thin edge to 

 the mouth of the shell, a genus named Proserpina. It is peculiar 

 amongst land shells for having a series of laminae revolving in the 

 throat, and the outer surface of the shell polished. This genus has 

 been adopted by Sowerby, Pfeiffer, Jonas, and most other authors. 



M. Duclos referred the species to the genus Carocolla ; Adams, 

 Pfeiffer, and Jonas in some of their earlier works considered them 

 as species of the extended genus Helix. 



M. d'Orbigny in his work on the MoUusca of Cuba, renamed the 

 genus Odostomtty and referred it with doubt to the family Cyclo- 

 stomidce. 



Though the shell is far from uncommon in the West Indies, Cuba, 

 and some parts of the American continent, the animal escaped the 

 researches of Guilding, Adams, Chitty, d'Orbigny and other observers. 

 In 1854, when in Berne, my friend. Dr. Shuttleworth, informed me 

 that it had two subulate tentacles, with the eyes sessile on the outer 

 side of their base ; and Mr. Bland has mentioned that the animal has 

 no operculum, and absorbs the septa between the upper whorls of the 

 spire, like some species of the genera Neritina^ Auricula, Helicina, 

 Stomastoma, and a few Helices. 



These observations induced me to place the family in my most 

 modern arrangement near Oligyradce. 



Mr. Cuming has kindly brought to me a specimen of the genus, 

 with its animal, which M. Salle discovered under leaves in the moun- 

 tains of Mexico, at some distance from the sea. 



The species is allied to Proserpina eolina, but differs in the spire 

 being much more convex ; I hence propose to call it P. Salleana. 



