128 BULLETIN OF THE 



a raised thread, the space between groove, thread, and margin being somewhat 

 excavated ; shell gaping at both ends ; anterior end rounded, base broadly 

 arcuated, posterior end very obtusely pointed ; angle between the anterior and 

 posterior dorsal margins very obtuse ; beaks hardly rising above the margin ; 

 anterior teeth thirteen, posterior seventeen, distinctly marked, with some four 

 or five obscure ones on each side near the beak ; ligament large, inserted un- 

 der the beak, instead of on a little shelf as usual. Lon. 13.1 ; alt. 7.5 ; diam. 

 4.75 mm. Beak behind the front, 5.0 mm. 



Sigsbee, off Havana, 182 fms.; Station 23, 190 fms.; Station 33, 1568 fms. 



This species belongs to the group of Yoldia lanceolata Soweiby, Y. seminuda 

 Dall, etc.; but I have not found any description or figure Avhich would seem 

 to apply to it. It is perhaps most like Yoldia nicobarka Spengler, as figured 

 by Hanley (Mon. Nuc, PI. I. fig. 7), but is less equilateral and less recurved 

 behind, beside being sculptured. 



GENUS GOULDIA C. B. Adams. 



< GouhUa C. B. Adams, Cat. Coll., p. 29, 1847. Dall, P. Z. S., Feb. 1879, p. 131. 



< Thdis C. B. Adams, Proe. Host. Soc. Nat. Hist., p. 9, 1845, non Sowerby. 



< Lioconcha Morch, Cat. Yoldi, pt. ii. p. 26, 1853. 



Circe E. A. Smith, P. Z. S., 1881, p. 489, non Schumacher. 



The genus Gouldia was instituted by Prof. Adams in 1847, as pointed out 

 lately by the writer in tlie Proceedings of the Zoological Society. More lately 

 Mr. E. A. Smith, of the British Museum, has shown that the genus, as consti- 

 tuted and as generally used, contains two very different types of shell, one 

 belon"in<' to that group of Veneridce of which Circe Schumacher is the leading 

 type, and the other to the Crassafellidre. While desirous of bearing testimony 

 to the general accuracy of Mr. Smith's comments on the subject, and to the 

 obligation under which he has placed us in setting forth the facts clearly, I 

 must beg leave to cpiestion two of his conclusions, first, that the genus is 

 untenable, and, secondly, that Prof. Adams' specific names are to be supplanted 

 by those of D'Orbigny. 



The genus contained two species, both new ; the first, G. cerina, essentially 

 similar to the Venus minima Montague, of Britain ; the second, 6'. 2Mrva, a 

 minute Crassatellid belonging to the sub-genus or section Eriphyla Gabb. 

 The specific names of Prof. Adams date from 1845, those of D'Orbigny from 

 1846, according to his own claims, which were never any too modest in 

 matters of prioritj^, -while the Mollusques de Cuba in Avhich they are figured 

 (and which in itself bears no evidence of their having been elsewhere described, 

 except the date 1846 after the specific name) was published in 1853, instead of 

 1841, as Mr. Smith has it. 



The genus Circe was described by Schumacher in 1817 with Venus scripta L. 

 as the type. From this the shells of the type of Gouldia cerina are very different. 

 We do not know the animal of Circe, but ou' conchological grounds alone there 

 Nov. 26, 1881. 



