476 



THE MOLLUSC A OF MAST HEAD REEF, CAPRICORN 

 GROUP, QUEENSLAND. 



Part II. 



By C. Hedley, F.L.S. 



(Plates xvi-xxi.) 

 ( C ontinued from Vol. xxxi., p. ^79.) 



A moderate estimate of the total molluscan fauna of the 

 Capricorn Group is a thousand species. It could not be ade- 

 quately represented by such a collection as that on which this 

 paper is written, procured within a week in six miles' radius of 

 one spot. The leisure hours of the past two years have not 

 sufficed to exhaust our gatherings. Numerous species., especially 

 among the difficult groups of Triphoridse and Pyramidellidse are 

 laid aside. So that in addition to the 447 species now enumerated 

 from Mast Head, more than 100 are left unstudied. M}^ cata- 

 logue includes 55 new to science, 123 new to Australia, and 202 

 new to Queensland. Many hitherto not observed north of 

 Sydney or south of Torres Strait have their respective boundaries 

 much enlarged. 



Almost exactly the same number of species are reported by 

 Messrs. Melvill and Standen from a collection formed within 100 

 miles radius of Thursday Island by Prof. A. C. Haddon. The 

 two lists have only a small proportion in common. But this 

 discrepancy indicates less a difference in fauna than a contrast 

 in methods of collecting. The conspicuous shells from the beaches 

 predominate in Prof. Haddon's collection, while the Mast Head 

 list includes more minute species from deeper water. 



There are three other important collections described from the 

 coast of Queensland. The bivalves from the 'Chevert' Expedition 



