Netv or Little-knoiun Victorian Fossils. 75 



length of half that of the shell, and set almost at right angles to 

 the hinge line, with a slight outward curve. Under a fairly high 

 magnification the shell surface between the striae is seen to be 

 irregularly pitted, and the striae themselves are bridged over by 

 oblique curved cross ridges. 



Measurements. 



An average specimen- - length 5.7 mm. 



width 10 „ 



A larger specimen - - length 7 ,, 



width 12.5 „ 



A small specimen - - length 5 ,, 



width 8.5 „ 



Affinities. — The only species with which our specimens appear 

 likely to be confused is Chonetes striatella, Dalman sp.^ The 

 latter has, however, a more transversely elongate shell, a 

 distinctly concave brachial valve, and spines set at a wide angle 

 with the ventral umbo. 



Observations. — McCoy has recorded Chonetes minima, Sow. 

 sp.,^ from Victoria ; and on the maps of the Geol. Surv. of 

 Victoria, Quarter-sheet, No. 3, N.E., in a note on the fossils at 

 Bruce's Creek, near Mount Disappointment, he records Leptaena 

 allied to minima, Sow. ;'^ also on Quarter-sheet, No. 4, S.W., at 

 Broadhurst's Creek, S.E. of Kilmore, locality Bb 18, both 

 Chonetes and Leptaena are recorded, as well as a Leptaena at 

 Dry Creek, Bb 19. It is worthy of note that a specimen of 

 Chonetes has been found in tiie Survey collections at the Museum, 

 labelled as such by McCoy, from locality Bb 18 [874], and this is 

 identical in every respect with Chonetes melbournensis. Whether 

 the Chonetes minima is represented in the Museum collection 

 remains to be discovered, but certain it is that the Broadhiirst 

 Cieek specimen is not referable to the latter form, which differs 

 in many respects from C. melbournensis in point of size, being 

 much smaller and often less than half the width, in the greater 



1 Orthis striatella, Dalman, 1827, Kongl. Akad. Handlingar, p. iii., pi. i., figs. 5a-d. 

 Chonetes striatella, Dalm. sp., Davidson, 1871, Brit. Sil. Brach., No. 4 (Pal. Soc. Mon.), 

 p. 331, pi. xlix., figs. 23-26. Zittel-Eastman, 1900, Text-book of Palaeontology, p. 317, fig. 

 529a. 



2 Leptaena minitna. Sow., McCoy, in Smyth's Progress Report, 1874, p. 34. 



3 In Murchison's Silurian System, 18.39, pi. xiii., figs. 4, 4a. 



