180 BULLETIN OF THE 



Phos parvus C. B. Adams. 



Triton parvus C. B. Adams, Contr. to Conch., p. 59, Jan., 1850. 

 Triton eximium Rawson, Carpenter in litt. as of Reeve. 



Phos intricatus Dall, Hemphill's Shells, U. S. Nat. Mus. Bull., VI. p. 325, pi. x. 

 fig. 9, 1883. 



Habitat. West coast of Florida, to Key "West. Vera Cruz, Mexico, Strebel. 

 Progreso, Mexico, Mex. Sci. Commission. Bahamas, Rawson. Jamaica, Rum 

 Cay, and Turk's Island, C. B. Adams. St. Thomas and Anguilla, in two feet 

 of water among stones and corals, Krebs. 



A visit to Amherst, where I was able to consult Prof. Adams's types, has en- 

 abled me to identify my P. intricatus with his Triton parvus. The eximium of 

 Reeve is subsequent to Adams's name, and was described as from the Indo- 

 Pacific region. They are probably not identical, though similar. The Flo- 

 ridian specimens are short, compact, with very prickly sculpture, and of a 

 white or muddy gray color. The Antillean specimens are more slender and 

 elongated, less prickly, and of a clear white, or banded prettily with light yel- 

 low brown or purplish, in a spiral direction. 



Perhaps the less attractive Floridian kind may retain the name of intricatus 

 in a varietal sense. 



I have what is either a distinct species or a very marked variety of P. parvus 

 in the National Collection, from the West Indies, but the specimen is not per- 

 fect enough for description. It has much the appearance and color of Phos 

 Beaut, but is more sharply sculptured and is very little larger than the largest 

 specimens of undoubted P. parvus. The sculpture has nothing of the imbri- 

 cated prickly quality so marked in that of P. })arvus. 



Genus NASSARIA (Link) H. & A. Adams. 



< Nassaria Link, Beschr. Rostock Samml., p. 123, May, 1807. 



= Hindsia A. Adams, P. Z. S., 1853, p. 182; Fischer Man., p. 631. 



= Nassaria H. & A. Adams, Gen. Rec. Moll., I. p. 123, 1853. 



The name Nassaria of Link, like the Nassarius of Dumeril, was originally in- 

 tended as a verbal emendation or improvement of the name Nassa of Lamarck. 

 It was not intended as a new genus, but as an equivalent of one already exist- 

 ing. It was divided into two sections by Link, of which Section A contains 

 as examples, in the order given, Buccinum niveum Gmelin, Nassa papillosa La- 

 marck, N. reticulata Lamarck, N. ornata Kiener, N. exilis Gmelin, Phos sen- 

 ticosus Montfort, and Pleurotoma buccinoides of Lamarck (=P. sinuata Born); 

 Section B contains Pisania tranquebarica, P. coromandeliana, and P. undosa of 

 Lamarck. 



It will be seen that the larger number of the species were Nassas, and all of 

 them looked like Nassa, as the name was used in those days. 



But if we regard the name as hiving any right to stand in nomenclature, and 



