226 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [1899. 



" A New Australian Eulinia," by Henry A. Pilsbry. 



" Descriptions of Two New Gray Foxes, " byGerritS. Miller, Jr. 



" Some Notes on Coccidse," by T. D. A. Cockerell. 



The deaths of xilexander Biddle, a member, and of Mariano 

 Barcena and Sylvanus Hanley, correspondents, were announced. 



Relations of the Land Molhiscan Fauna of SouUi America. — 

 Mr. H. A. PiLSBRY spoke of the extrinsic relations of the land 

 molhiscan fauna of South America, recounting and commenting 

 upon the various theories advanced to account for the relations 

 existing between the South American, African and Australo- 

 Zealandic faunas. The evidence of former Austral land connecting 

 South America with Australasia derived from a study of the 

 Bulimulidce, the Macroogona, etc., was detailed The speaker 

 gave his reasons for preferring the hypothesis of a former extension 

 of Antarctic land to that of a South Pacific continent, as ad- 

 vocated by Prof. Huttou^ and some others. He claimed that the 

 present fauna of southern Polynesia was not consistent with Hut- 

 ton's supposition that these islands had been submerged and thus 

 their fauna destroyed on the sinking of the supposed Pacific con- 

 tinent entirely below the sea, the present " islands being merely 

 outgrowths on its submerged back." Some Polynesian groups, 

 such as Partula, belong to very primitive and therefore ancient 

 groups, unknown in any other area, and indicating great antiquity 

 for the Polynesian archipelagoes.'^ Neither is the present fauna of 

 Polynesia consistent with the hypothesis that these islands are unsub- 

 merged remnants of a Pacific continent. 



The enigmatic relations of the fresh-water fishes, snails, and 

 the terrestrial Streptaxidce of tropical South x'Vmerica with the 

 African fauna were discussed. 



The speaker considered the neotropical region of Wallace to be 

 composite, the Antillean and southern Mexican area representing 

 a tract independent from North and South America in INIesozoie and 

 perhaps earlier time, on which the faunal problems had been inde- 

 pendently worked out. 



Various questions bearing on the communication were discussed 

 by Dr. Calvert, Prof, Cockerell and Dr. Sharp. 



^ See Proc. Linn. Soc. New South Wales, 1896, p. 36, for an able paper 

 advocating Prof. Mutton's views. 



'■' Pai'tula, like the allied AchatincUa of the Hawaiian group, has a bottle- 

 shaped kidney with direct, not reflexed,' ureter, as in Limnma. These forms 

 have no relations with the Buliinulidm and Achatinidce, with which con- 

 chologists associate them, hut lie at the base of the terrestrial pnhnonate 

 tree. 



