lyo The Ottawa Naturalist. [October 



ultimately justify Reeves' name -5. lahr ado reuse, for features shown 

 in the eggf-masses, and in early stages of development exhibit 

 differences quite marked as compared with the British form. Dr. 

 Whiteaves' con-parison of living adult specimens, however, from 

 both sides of the Atlantic showed them to be practically undistin- 

 guishable from each other. The ten species of Buccinum men- 

 tioned in this catalogue would well repay renewed study, especially 

 if the study included the ova and the embryonic stages. Curiously 

 enough the small Dog-whelk {Purpura lapi/his, L.) arouses such 

 question. Its adult stage as well as its characteristic vase-shaped 

 eg^ cases are identical with those of the European form, nor does 

 the periwinkle {Litorina literea, L. ) stir up any doubts. Indeed its 

 identity with the East-Atlantic form has been so long recognized 

 that Nova Scotian naturalists have for more than a quarter of a 

 century supported its non-indigenous character. Dr. Whiteaves 

 (p. 173) seems inclined to favour the view that it has been intro- 

 duced from Europe. If so its dispersion and its local abundance 

 everywhere are most astonishing. There are few rocky spots on 

 our Atlantic shore where the periwinkle does not occur in count- 

 less myriads. The allied species Z/V<;r/;/« rudis (Maton) is recorded 

 only for our more northern coast extending into Hudson Bay, but 

 no doubt it will be yet found further south. 



Just as so many of our mammals, birds and fishes correspond 

 to but are not identical with European species — our moose differ- 

 ing from the European elk, though not extremely so ; our white- 

 fish, sturgeon, pike and trout unlike, yet in many respects 

 resembling, the corresponding species in Europe, and our eastern 

 salmon being according to the authorities not distinguishable from 

 the British salmon [Salmo sdlar, L. ), so o.ur invertebrate forms 

 differ in so many respects yet may in some cases be essentially 

 undistinguishable. 



A recent remark by the famous British zoologist, Professor 

 Mcintosh, to whom Dr. Whiteaves was indebted for diagnosing the 

 Annelids, emphasizes this point and shows how much our natural- 

 ists have to do before the determination of many zoological species 

 can be regarded as final. Dr. Mcintosh says : "The exact relation- 

 ships of the American Phyllodocidae to European forms have yet to 



