364 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Oct. 



REVIEW OF THE NORTHERN BUCCINUMS, 



AND REMARKS ON SOME OTHER NORTHERN MARINE MOLLUSKS. 



Part I. 

 By Dr. Wm. Stimpson. 



Having recently undertaken, at the request of Principal Dawson 

 of McGill College, to make some comparisons of the fossils of the 

 pleistocene deposits of Canada and Maine with recent species, 

 particularly those of the difficult genus Buccinum, I am induced 

 to offer the results for publication, the work having become more 

 extended than was at first anticipated. 



Genus Buccinum Linn. 



The group of shells to which the generic name Buccinum was 

 originally applied, a century ago, by Linne, has been found by 

 subsequent investigation to contain many heterogeneous forms, 

 and has consequently been greatly subdivided. The name has 

 been retained for the genus typified by Buccinum undatum, by 

 common consent, and, I believe, in accordance with the best rules 

 of nomenclature. It is true that Linne's first species — that 

 which is to be selected, as in cases where no type is distinctly 

 specified, — is a Dolium. But in the case of Linne's genera, he 

 must be considered to have indirectly specified the type, as he has 

 expressly stated that, in his view, where it becomes necessary to 

 divide a group, formerly supposed to be one genus, the original 

 name must be retained for the subdivision containing the most 

 common species ; in other words, that the most common species 

 must be considered as the type of its genus. And he must, there- 

 fore, have regarded the undatum, the most common of all his 

 Buccinunis, as the type of the genus. 



The Scandinavian naturalists have generally retained the name 

 Tritonium of Mueller for this genus, but Linne's name has priority 

 by many years. Tritonium, as proposed, and as frequently used 

 since, would include both the Murex and the Buccinum of Linne. 



The genus is too well known to require particular description here, 

 and few points require special remark. Among the spiral grooves 

 and striae or ridges with which the shell is always more or less 

 deeply sculptured, two kinds may usually be distinguished, a large 

 and a small kind, those of the latter being by far the more nume- 

 rous,and distributed upon the surface of the others. These kinds we 

 shall call, for convenience, the primary and secondary grooves, or 



