MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. 181 



proceed by a process of elimination, we find very soon that in 1853 the onlj 

 unappropriated unit of this heterogeneous assembly is the first species. Rafi- 

 nesque in 1815 had adopted Nassaria, but he did not define it, merely putting it 

 next to Nassa and among the genera of his subfamily Buccinidia. Pfeiffer does 

 not regard the Buccinum niveum of Gmelin as identifiable, and the figure is 

 certainly far from good, but later the Adams brothers concluded that it rep- 

 resented a shell which one of them had just placed in a new genus, Hindsia A. 

 Adams. It would doubtless have been better to have left Nassaria as an ab- 

 solute synonym of Nassa, and retained Hindsia for the new group. But the 

 brothers Adams were the first to revise it, and the most interested in the later 

 name, and they did not adopt this plan*; so perhaps science will best be served 

 by accepting their decision, though much might be said on both sides. 



The investigations of the Fish Commission and the Blake in Antillean waters 

 and along the coasts of the United States have brought to light several species 

 of a group nearly related to Nassaria, but which it seems necessary to distin- 

 guish by a subgeneric name. None of the typical Nassarias have so far been 

 found in the region under consideration, but the present group seems to replace 

 the typical genus in East American waters. 



Subgenus NASSARINA Dall. 



Shell with the general characters of Nassaria, but more compact, spindle- 

 shaped and small, and with the aperture long and narrowed anteriorly, and the 

 columella margin elevated and prominent, and united in the adult by an ele- 

 vated callus with the outer lip on the body whorl. Soft parts unknown. 

 Type, N. Bushii Dall. 



To this group belong N. Bushii, N. Grayii, N. columbellata, all new species, 

 and N. glypta Bush, which was described, with doubt, as a Mangilia. The 

 group goes to the Miocene, if Columbella arnbigua Guppy proves to belong to 

 it. N. glypta is fossil in Floridian Pliocene. 



Nassarina glypta Bush. 



Mangilia? glypta Bush, Trans. Conn. Acad., VI. p. 461, pi. xlv. figs. 5, 5a, 1885. 



This is the smallest species of the group, and the figure above referred is un- 

 fortunately not a good one, the specimen being imperfect. In an adult speci- 

 men the aperture is a little more than two thirds as long as the whole of the 

 last whorl. In the figure it is only about half as long as the whorl, and in so 

 far does not well represent the mature shell, nor the peculiar anteriorly pinched 

 aperture. This species has been found at TJ. S. Fish Commission Stations 

 2276, 2595, 2596, 2597, 2607, 2608, 2610, 2612, 2615, 2616, 2617, and 2619, 

 off the coast of North Carolina, in 14-63 fms., sand, bottom temperature 

 67° to 80 3 F. 



