46 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [April, 



issued in 1822. The two figures given represent tlie form now com- 

 monly known as "S. totteniana^' (but properly called S. ovalis Say), 

 and still found around Philadelphia. These figures agree perfectly 

 with the specimens labelled by Say in the collection of the Academy. 

 On the same plate Ferussac figures larger forms ("S. obliqua" of 

 authors) as varieties of S. putris (figs. 7, 8). He also figures large 

 ovalis (totteniana) from "the islands Miquelon and Saint Pierre, near 

 Newfoundland" (fig. 9). 



The species S. ovalis was therefore very well figured by Ferussac, 

 from author's specimens, prior to Say's description of S. obliqua; and 

 there was but scant excuse for mistaking it, except that but few 

 American workers possessed the large and expensive Histoire naturelle 

 generale et particuliere des Mollusques terrestres et fluviaiiles. 



Beck, 1837, and other early European writers accepted the species, 

 referring to Ferussac's figures. 



Succinea ovalis was correctly recognized also by various early 

 American writers for the form later known as totteniana. See DeKay's 

 New York Fauna, Mollusca, p. 53, PI. 4, figs. 51, 52. It was Gould 

 who by error shifted the names, in the first edition of the Invertebrata 

 of Massachusetts (1841). He recognized three Succineas in that 

 State : 



S. ovalis, fig. 125 [= S. retusa Lea]. 



S. campestris, fig. 126 [= S. ovalis Say = totteniana Lea]. 



,S. avara, fig. 127 [correctly identified]. 



Gould subsequently recognized his two mistakes, and finding that 

 the names *S. ovalis Say, obliqua Say and campestris Gould, not Say, 

 all applied to one species, he proposed to retain the name obliqua for 

 it, and to use "*S. ovalis Gld. not Say" for *S. retusa, the snail he had 

 figured in error as Say's ovalis. 



DeKay, C. B. Adams and Sager, who used Gould's work, were in some 

 measure misled, especially in regard to *S. campestris. DeKay (1843), 

 as mentioned above, correctly identified S. ovalis. 



In 1851 Dr. Amos Binney lucidly discussed the American Succineas 

 in Vol. II of the Terrestrial Mollusks, pp. 63, 64. His exposition of the 

 history of *S. ovalis Say leaves little to be desired, and may well be 

 quoted here : 



"Succinea ovalis Say. — This species, diffused universally in the 

 middle and northern States of the Union, is that which is described in 

 the works of Messrs. Gould, Mighels, Kirtland and Sager as Succinea 

 campestris Say. It varies much in size, and in the divergence of the 

 last whorl from the axis of the shell, and this last variation when 



