221 



NOTE ON THE CORRECT HABITAT OF PATELLA 

 (SCUTELLASTRA) KERMADECEN.^IS, PILSBRY. 



By T. F. Cheeseman, F.L.S , Curator of the Auckland Museum. 



(Communicated by the yecretary.) 



Some months ago, Prof. F. W. Hutton drew my attention to a 

 communication from Mr. Brazier printed in the Proceedings of the 

 Linnean Society of New South Wales (Vol. ix., 2nd Ser., p. 183) 

 in which it is stated that South Africa is the true habitat of 

 Paleli'i hermadecensis, and that Mr. Pilsbry was mistaken in 

 supposing that his specimens came from the Kermadec Islands. 

 Apparently, Mr. Brazier arrives at this conclusion from the fact 

 that a specimen in his possession, originally obtained from a New 

 Zealand dealer notoriously inaccurate in the localities assigned to 

 his specimens, has adhering to it two individuals of Patella 

 G'ichlear, Born , a species known to inhabit the Cape of Good 

 Hope. He also considers it extremely improbable that such a 

 large and conspicuous species as that described by Mr. Pilsbry 

 should have been overlooked by the late Mr, John MacGillivray, 

 the naturalist attached to H.M.S. " Herald," which ship, under 

 the command of Capt. Denham, in the year 1851:, made a stay of 

 nearly four weeks at Sunday Island, the largest of the Kermadec 

 Group. 



As Mr. Pilsbry 's t}T)es were collected by myself at Sunday 

 Island, I wrote a few lines with the intention of forwarding them 

 to the Society. Just at that time, however, I received the 

 following part of the " Proceedings," in which I noticed that Mr. 

 Hedley had, on the strength of information furnished by my 

 friend Mr C Spencer, again asserted the claims of the Kermadec 

 Islands (see Yol. ix., 2nd Ser., p. 465). Thinking that this was 



