:352 Frederick ('hajmian : 



type being Afiir/a aturi. Foord says (op. eit. p. "joS), " This 

 variety closely resembles the Dax specimens of Afuria aturi : a speci- 

 men from " Muddy Creek," Victoria (Australia) being quite indis- 

 tinguishable at first sight from the Dax fossils. On comparing, 

 however, a specimen of the latter with the Muddy Creek shell, both 

 ])eing of equal size, it is found that the Australian shell has a 

 lai-.gev siphuncular orifice than the Dax specimens, thus adding 

 another point of difference to those indicated by McCoy as existing 

 between tlie two forms." 



Quite recently M. Vignal, of Paris, has favoured the Museum 

 Avith a specimen of Afuria afitrl, of Burdigalian age, from Dax. 

 Landes. Fi'ance. On comparing this specimen with Australian 

 examples, the following features, already pointed out by McCoy 

 and Foord are seen :• — 



(1) The Australian shells are more compressed. 



(2) The septa and growth-lines are more strongly recurved to- 



wards the periphery. 

 (.3) The siphvincular orifice is larger. 



In view of the above-named cliaraeters, which , are constant so 

 far as my own observations go. there are justifiable grounds for 

 keeping the Australian form as a distinct species, at the same time 

 bearing in mind that its relationship is nearest Aturia aturi. It 

 is only fair to state, however, that Mi-. R. B. Newton, during his 

 visit with the British Association to Melbourne this year, infornietl 

 U8 at the sessional meeting that he and Mr. G. C. Crick, of the 

 British Museum of Natural History, are agreed to consider our 

 Australian species as identical with Aturia aturi. Probably did 

 the London Museum possess a larger comparative series of the 

 Australian form, that view might undergo some modification, and 

 it is to be regretted that Mr. Newton did not have time to criti- 

 cally examine the series of Aturiae in the Melbourne National 

 Museum. 



C. F. Parona in 1899 described from Gassino. Piedmont, an 

 Upper Eocene or Oligocene Aturia under the name of A. rnraxen- 

 diana.^ This species has a compressed shell after the mode of A. 

 aturi, but in the structure of the septation it shows more afiRnity 

 with A. ziczac and its allies. This species thus appears to indicate 

 a connecting link between the palaeogene and neogene aturids. 



Occurrence and Horizons. — The related European Aturia aturi 

 is, so far as I can discover, typically found in Miocene beds in 



1 Pal. Ital., vol. iv. (1838), 189!), p. 156, pi. xii., fisr. 1; pi. xiii., figs. 1-3. 



2 Foord. Brit. Mus. Cat., supra cit., p. 354 (" IjOtidon Clay.") 



