PANAMIC-PACIFIC PELECYPODA IS 



familiar with the Cuming's Collection in the British Museum and the lack 

 of illustration in the Mazatlan Catalogue was partly offset by the duplicate 

 collections which he arranged and deposited in the museums at Washing- 

 ton, D.C., Albany, and Montreal. There is also at Washington, a set 

 of plates of fine, camera-lucida drawings of the majority of the species 

 described in the Mazatlan Catalogue. The main Mazatlan Collection is in 

 the British Museum (Natural History) where it is readily available, the 

 larger specimens are glued on glass plates, the smaller species such as 

 Caecum and the vitrinellids on glass slivers placed in vials. Since many of 

 the minute species were obtained from the pickings of Spondylus, and the 

 like, the specimens are often broken and worn and being stuck down and in 

 some cases deeply embedded in glue, only a single surface is exposed, and 

 a critical study of the shell is difficult. 



In 1891 and again in 1904-05, the United States Fish Commission 

 steamer Albatross under the direction of Alexander Agassiz, carried on 

 extensive dredging operations along the coasts of Mexico, Panama, Ecuador, 

 Peru, and around the Galapagos Islands. As the Albatross mollusks were 

 taken mostly in deep water they do not embrace many forms proper to 

 the Panamic-Pacific province. The report on the mollusks was prepared 

 by Dall and published as a separate bulletin of the Museum of Compar- 

 ative Zoology at Cambridge, Massachusetts. This report is the first general 

 account we have of the deep-sea mollusks of the eastern Pacific, the 

 Ch-allenger of the British Expedition having entered this region for a brief 

 spell only and taken but a few hauls. Being mainly deepwater species, the 

 Albatross forms do not particularly concern us in this work, but several 

 closely allied species are known as fossil in Panama and Ecuador. 



At the request of the Peruvian government, R. E. Coker connected 

 with the United States Bureau of Fisheries spent several years in Peru, and 

 reported upon the marine resources of that country, including studies on 

 the nesting habits of the guano birds. Coker assembled large collections of 

 marine invertebrates which were distributed amongst several specialists to 

 work up, Dall reporting on the mollusks. ("Report on a Collection of Shells 

 from Peru, with a Summary of the Littoral Marine Mollusca of the Peru- 

 vian Zoological Province," Proc. U.S. Nat. Museum, vol. 37, No. 1704, 1909) 

 In this important paper, Dall besides describing the Coker material, also 

 complied a checklist of Peruvian marine mollusks, largely from the literature, 

 thus bringing the subject up-to-date. The paper also contains a discussion 

 of the Panamic and Peruvian faunal areas and a bibliography. 



Between 1929 and 1931, H. N. Lowe, a Californian, collected assiduously 

 along the coast of Mexico, San Salvador, Costa Rica, and Panama. An 

 account of his experiences in the field was published in the Nautilus and in 

 the Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences. The latter paper in 

 collaboration with Pilsbry also contains a section devoted to the 

 description of the many new species secured as well as copious notes on 

 many others. The paper is illustrated with a series of 17 plates. 



