364 PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



badly described. The pubbcatiou of the excellent work of G. O. Sars 

 has at lenj>th rendered it possible to identify many species, hitherto 

 doubtful, with his Norwegian forms, though there may still be doubt as 

 to the proi)er ajjplicatiou of the names given by earlier writers, and 

 even as to the actual si)ecific distinctness of all the forms that he has 

 described. The sexual variations he has not taken into account. Dur- 

 ing numerous dredging expeditions made in the past twenty years, the 

 writer has obtained a large series of specimens of Bcla, which he has 

 reserved for a more complete revision hereafter; but some of the more 

 consi^icuous forms not yet recorded from New England, and in part not 

 known as American species, are here mentioned. Figures of all these 

 and others have been engraved for a more detailed paper and will, it is 

 hoped, soon be published. 



Bela Pingelii (Moller, 1842) H. & A. Adams, i, p. 92, 1858. 



G. O. Sars, Moll. Eeg. Arct. Norv., p. 2JS, pi. 16, fig. 5, 1878. 



This very distinct species has been repeatedly dredged by me at East- 

 port, Me., and by the United States Fish Commission parties in Casco 

 Bay, Massachusetts Bay, on George's Bank, and off Nova Scotia. It 

 has not unfrequentty been confounded by autiiors with B. cancellata. It 

 is our most slender and elongated species, with evenly rounded whorls, 

 strongly cancellated, over the whole surface, by numerous slender, longi- 

 tudinal ribs and revolving raised lines or cinguli, which are about 

 equally prominent, and form small, round nodules where they cross the 

 ribs. 



Bela Sarsil Verrill, sp. nov. 



Bela cancellata G. O. Sars, op. cit., p. 224, pi. 23, fig. 31 ; pi. viii, fig. 9 (uot 

 of Couthouy). 



This name is proposed for the species described and figured by G. O. 

 Sars as B. cancellata. The same species was formerly collected by Dr. 



A. S. Packard at Labrador, and sent to us by him under the name of 



B. cxarata. It is a small, strongly sculptured species, with obtuse, 

 angular-shouldered whorls, and is especially distinguished by its few 

 broad and strong ribs, crossed by rather distant revolving lines, giving 

 it a coarsely cancellated surface. 



Bela cancellata (Migliels) Stimpson, Check List. 



Fusus caiwellatus Mighels, Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., i, p. 50, 1841; Boston 



Joiirn. Nat. Hist,, iv, p. 52, pi. 4, fig. 18, Jan., 1842. 

 Bela cancellata Gould, Invert. Mass., ed. ii, p. 355, description (not tfie figure, 

 624). 



The true Bela cancellata (Mighels) is a common shell on the New En- 

 gland coast, in 20 to 00 fathoms. It is an elongated species, with long, 

 acute spire, and with the whorls moderately and obtusely shouldered at 

 some distance below the suture, the flattened portion above the shoulder 

 being destitute of revolving lines, but crossed by the numerous oblique 

 ribs, which are strongly bent at the shoulder and take a sigmoid form. 



