Fossil Fauna, Table Cape Beds, Tasjuajna. 129 



complanato ; latere anali elongate subangulato. Longeur dix 

 luillimetres." I cannot regard this as identical with the shell 

 described by Tenison Woods. I am also unable to make 

 Sowerby's description of N". grayi, given in Reeve's Conchologia 

 Iconica, fit our living species. The description given is as 

 follows : — " Shell ovate, very transverse, slightly acuminated at 

 both ends, thin, rather inflated, very smooth, olive ; posterior 

 side produced ; doi-sal area compressed, elevated sub-aliform, end 

 acuminated ; anterior side a little produced, cuneated ; lunule 

 short, defined." Recorded from South America by D'Orbigny 

 and from New Zealand on the authority of Cuming. The Nucula 

 at present living in Port Philip Bay is not at all uncommon 

 when dredging about the neighbourhood of Brighton or Mordi. 

 alloc. On several occasions living specimens have been obtained 

 as well as numerous single valves. Having made very careful 

 comparisons between this living species and our very common 

 eocene and miocene, and, according to Professor Tate, also older 

 pliocene fossil, T am forced to the conclusion that there is not 

 the slightest difference between them worthy of the name, and I 

 have therefore no hesitation whatever in again upholding their 

 identity. A fact worthy of note, in my opinion, is that the 

 Spring Creek fossils are those which show the most marked 

 divergence from the living form, whereas those from the eocene 

 beds of Muddy Creek and Mornington, which belong to a higher 

 horizon in the series, according to the opinion held by Mr. T. S. 

 Hall and myself, are absolutely identical, as is also the case with 

 the miocene fossil, though it is noticeable that the latter reached 

 somewhat larger dimensions than those hitherto obtained in the 

 living state. The fossil form was first examined by the Rev J. 

 E. T. Woods in 1876, when he described it as a new species 

 under the name of N. tiimida, remarking that it was " not unlike 

 the Tasmanian N. grayi, Sow., but more tumid and conspicuously 

 sulcate." Subsequently Professor Tate, when dealing with the 

 Tertiary Lamellibranchs, accepted Tenison Woods' species and 

 agreed with him as to its differences from the living Tasmanian 

 species. Both the Rev. J. E. T. Woods and Professor Tate have, 

 however-, overlooked the fact that the name Nucula tuinida had 

 already been preoccupied by Mr. Hinds for a living shell obtained 



