7o8 NATURAL SCIENCE. 



Nov., 



under consideration. A serious defect is the scanty information 

 supplied about some few species. For example, all that we are told 

 about the Red-necked Phalarope is this : " A rare \isitor on passage ; 

 it is said to have been shot on the Kibble." We only mention this, 

 however, as a clear proof that there is still work to be accomplished 

 by Lancashire ornithologists in mapping out the visits they 

 receive from some of their rarer species. We hope that the appear- 

 ance of this admirable edition, with its improved index, will spur 

 them on to renewed exertion. The coloured plates of the Wall 

 Creeper and Black-tiiroated W^heatear, which accompanied the first 

 edition, are now replaced by two of the choicest of Mr. G. E. Lodge's 

 woodcuts. We regret that the \Vall Creeper obtained in Lancashire, 

 the only British specimen extant, was fated to pass into a private 

 collection, when Mr. Mitchell lett England. It should certainly have 

 been secured for the national collection. 



The Conchological Society's List of British jLanu and Freshwater 

 MoLLUSCA, 1892. Compiled 'by W. Nelson, VV. Denison Roebuck, F.L.S., 

 and J. W.Taylor. F.L.S. 



Such a list as this comes eminently within the province of a body 

 like the " Conchological Society of Great Britain and Ireland," and 

 the present new edition should have been made thoroughly complete 

 and reliable that it might serve as a guide for the multitude of 

 votaries of the Science, youthful and otherwise, whom we are glad to 

 think abound over the country. 



Numerous changes and some improxements have been intro- 

 duced into the present issue. The old artificial division into Land 

 and Freshwater forms has been abandoned in favour of a more scientific 

 classification, which, however, is capable of yet further emendation 

 as regards the slugs. The Arionidae, which head the list, 

 should come nearer the Hehcidae, and their place be taken by the 

 Testacellidae. 



The nomenclature has been revised, and several changes made in 

 conformity with the inexorable law of priority.. Helix sencea, Miill., 

 becomes H. gvamilata, Aid. ; H. erketortim, Miill., is now admitted to 

 be Linne's H. itala, as long ago shown by Hanley. Whether the 

 Planorhis marginatiis, Dra.p., is Miiller's P. nmbilicatus, as now advanced, 

 is very (juestionable. The genus Bulimus disappears : B. acutus being 

 rightly transferred to Helix, and the other two British species 

 referred to Bnliminus. Cyclostoma, on the other hand, we are glad to 

 see, is retained. The genera Amphipeplea, Segmentina and Velletia are 

 revived for their appropriate species of Limna;idcTe ; but this being so, 

 it would have been more consistent had Patula likewise been allowed 

 to stand as a genus. Paludina gives place to Vivipayus : surely the 

 feminine form would have been more appropriate. Anodonta anatina 

 still mastjucrades as a species, despite the fact that even Isaac Lea 

 would ha\e none of it. Testacclla sciituluiii, Sow., is re-established, 

 although further confirmation of its specific distinctness is really 

 desirable. The sectional names of Trichia and Zeuobia have by some 

 oversight been omitted under Helix, with the result that the Friiticola 

 group is unduly rich in species. 



Synonyms are only given wliere a well-known name has had to 

 give way to an earlier and comparatively unknown one, which they 

 follow in each case in parentheses. Here a confusion arises, owing to 

 the way in which these are expressed. Thus we find "(=L. margina- 



