WEST AMERICAN PYRAMIDELLID MOLLUSKS. 3 



Mr. C. W. Gripp, of San Diego; Mr. Fred L. Button, of Oakland; Mr. 

 S. S. Berry and Mr. J. H. Paine, of Stanford University; Rev. Dr. 

 G. W. Taylor, of Nanaimo, British Columbia; Hon. Delos Arnold and 

 Dr. Ralph Arnold, of Pasadena, CaUfornia; and Dr. R. E. C. Steams, 

 of Los Angeles, California; Mr. E. A. Smith, of the British Museum, 

 and Dr. G. W. Chaster, of Southport, England. Among those who 

 have contributed material bearing on the general subject though not 

 on the West American fauna in particular, we are especially indebted 

 to Rev. H. W. Winkley, of Danvers, Massachusetts. Material in 

 the collection of the U. S. National Museum, contributed without 

 special reference to this monograph, was received from Mr. Belding, 

 Mr. S. A. L. Brannan, Mr. Blood, Mr. J. G. Cooper, Mr. P. P. Carpenter, 

 Dr. W. H. Dall, Mr. G. H. Eldridge, I^Ir. \Y. J. Fisher, Mr. Hansen, 

 Dr. George Hewston, Mr. O. B. Johnston, Mr. E. Jewett, Mr. Trevor 

 Kincaid, Mr. C. B. Kennerley, Mr. A. Krause, Mrs. Merrihew, Dr. C. F. 

 Newcombe, Capt. H. Nichols, U. S. Navy, Mr. C. R. Orcutt, Dr. E. 

 Palmer, Mr. E. S. Roper, Mr. J. G. Swan, Mr. J. O. Snyder, Mr. Turrill, 

 Mr. F. Woodworth, and Mr. J. Xantus. We have had the advantage 

 of consulting specimens from the Eocene of the Paris Basin, named by 

 M. Maurice Cossmann, of Paris. Lastly, the Jeffreys collection with 

 its multitude of specimens, author's examples, types, and cotypes, 

 of British, abyssal Atlantic, north European, and Mediterranean 

 species, has been a means of reference without which we should have 

 been in numerous instances most seriously handicapped. 



The senior author desires to say that with the exception of this 

 introduction and a certain amount of editorial supervision and 

 advisory assistance, the labor of microscopically studying the speci- 

 mens and preparing the manuscript of this paper is the work of the 

 junior author, to whom the credit should be given. This labor has 

 been very great and has been performed in the intervals of other work 

 officially more pressing. We hope, therefore, that friends who have 

 from time to time intrusted us with material which has often been 

 retained for a considerable time before being returned to its owners, 

 will make allowances for what has in no case been intentional delay 

 or neglect. 



We may here repeat an explanation printed in 1904, that the 

 Museum Calonnianum is an anonymous pamphlet with no pub- 

 lisher's name attached to it, no diagnosis or figures, and which was not 

 prepared by George Humphrey, the dealer who distributed it. We 

 have therefore declined to regard the name Oheliscus, which is con- 

 tained in it, as having been regularly pubHshed, or as having preced- 

 ence over Pyramidella Lamarck. 



A brief historical review of the progress of the study of the Pyra- 

 midellidae on the western shores of the two Americas may be in 

 place here. 



