BY JAMES C. COX, M.D., F.L.S., ETC. 591 



their presence on the North-east shores of our great Continent, 

 between this point and the Caroline Islands moving east we find 

 them almost universally distributed over the Islands met with as 

 far as 130° of West Longitude, including the Admiralty, Solomon, 

 Marshall, Louisiade, Gilbert, Ellice, New Hebrides, New 

 Caledonia, Loyalty, Fiji, Navigators, Friendly, Cook and Society 

 Islands ; they have not been found to pass as far East as the 

 American Coast in the Pacific, nor has New Zealand to the South 

 been favoured with their presence. 



From these facts it is evident that this genus will always be 

 of importance to Australasian Collectors. Every lot of shells I 

 have received from the Pacific Islands contains specimens in 

 more or less abundance of this genus ; in the Solomon Group 

 especially, they are very abundant and extremely variable in 

 their size, shape, solidity and other characters ; within a very few 

 years I believe that their exact distribution will be almost perfectly 

 known and if I am not mistaken, the number of species instead 

 of increasing will be materially lessened, as I feel sure that many 

 so called species are mere local varieties. I trust that by freely 

 circulating this paper amongst the collectors in the Pacific and 

 those of our compeers in other parts of the world, the objects 

 I have in view may be attained, and our Australian Collectors 

 may be induced to pay more attention to this genus than it has 

 hitherto found at their hands, and to record their experience. 

 The facts now recorded are far from perfect, still they are the 

 observation of years and are worthy of notice. 



1*** Pythia abbreviata, Blainville. 



Scarabus abbreviatus, Blain., in Dictionaire des Sciences 

 Naturelles Vol xlviii., p. 31, 1827. 



Polydonda abbreviata, Beck, in Index Mollus., p. 101, 1837. 



Pythia ? abbreviata, Pfr., in Synop. Auric, in Malak. Blatt., p. 

 149, 1854. 



