SUMMARY OF THE MOLLUSKS OF THE FAMILY ALECTRI- 

 ONIDAE OF THE WEST COAST OF AMERICA. 



By William He ale y Dall, 



Honorary Curator of Mollusks, United States National Micseum. 



In reviewing the West American Nassas in the United States Na- 

 tional Museum the following notes were made which may be useful to 

 students of the West Coast fauna. 



It has long since been pointed out that the name Nassa, applied 

 first by Bolten in 1798 to the shell later named by the brothers Adams 

 lopas (sertum Lamarck) , could not be used for the different group to 

 which Lamarck gave the name a year later. 



Bolten included the Lamarckian Nassas, typified by Buccinum 

 arcularia Gmelm, in the second section of his genus Distorsio. If we 

 regard only the aspect of the shells this arrangement w^as not unjus- 

 tified by the current ideas of the time. 



The different groups of the Lamarckian Nassas grade into one 

 another so insensibly that it is difficult to award generic rank to any 

 portion of the genus. However, a practical solution of the difficidty 

 from a conchological standpomt, pending anatomical researches, is 

 to use Link's name Arcularia (1807) for the group carrying a heavy 

 callus about the aperture and a hump on the back of the last whorl, 

 typified by Buccinum arcularia Gmelin; and for the reticulate spe- 

 cies with little or no caUus, no hump, and simple or nearly simple 

 outer lip, Montfort's name Alectrion (1810), typified by Buccinum 

 papillosum Linnaeus. The numerous sections into which these 

 groups have been divided, may for the present purpose be ignored. 

 The name which is masculme may be supposed to have been suggested 

 by a distant resemblance of the sculpture to the caruncles of a cock's 

 comb. 



Alectrion fossatus Gould, 1850. This is Buccinum elegans of Reeve, 1842, but not 

 of J. Sowerby, 1814. Its known range is from Vancouver Island south to the 

 vicinity of Cerros Island, Lower California, and possibly to the Gulf. 

 Alectrion gramrnatus Dall, new species. Pleistocene of Santa Barbara, Cali- 

 fornia. About the same size as fossatus, but more regular and compact, with a 

 uniform sculpture of flat spiral cords separated by narrow channels without 

 in tercalai-y minor spirals. (Cat. No. 101721, U.S.N.M.) There are several older 

 fossils of this family not included in this list. 



Proceedings U. S. National Museum, Vol. 51— No. 2166. 



575 



