Payraudeau. Catalogue des Mollusques^ S^-c, 477 



Catalogue Descriptif et Methodique des Annelides et det Mollusques 

 de l^Ile de Corse; avec huit Planches representant quatre' 

 vingt'huit especesy dont soixante huit nouvelles : par B. C. 

 Paykaodeau. Svo. pp, 218. Paris^ 1826. 



Appearing almost at the same time with the work of M. Risso, 

 which we have just noticed, it is impossible not to remark the 

 poverty of the present list, when compared with the ample one 

 furnished by the Professor of Nice. The collection of Annelida 

 and Mollusca formed by M. Payraudeau amounts to only three 

 hundred and fifty-six species. It was however made during a 

 mere, though somewhat lengthened, visit, and could not, of course, 

 be expected to approximate in extent to one which had been the 

 labour of a life. The present production is little more than the 

 Catalogue which it professes to be. For those species which are 

 contained in the Histoire Naturelle des Animaux sans Vertebres, 

 it merely quotes that standard work of M. Lamarck, with the 

 addition of the synonyms of the later English writers. The new 

 species are shortly, but clearly, described ; and the whole of these, 

 together with some of the more intricate of the older ones, are 

 illustrated by well executed lithographic figures. No new generic 

 section is proposed. 



A leading object with M. Payraudeau appears to have been to 

 place the French Conchologist on equal grounds with the English, 

 as to the knowledge of the shells of their respective coasts. Those 

 which occur in England and on its shores are thoroughly known, 

 and have been well and repeatedly described. France yet possesees 

 no work devoted to her indigenous Mollusca^ and we have con- 

 sequently, in this department at least, advanced far before our 

 neighbours. The examination of any good English collection 

 would have materially improved the publication before us. It 

 would have rectified many of the synonyms, which are now given 

 erroneously, and would have spared the authour the trouble of 

 describing and figuring as new, in several instances, shells already 

 described and figured by Montagu, Donovan, and others. 



