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PREFACE. 



nrmS catalogue grew from the research incidental to the identifi- 

 * cation of the mollusca procured by Mr. Frederick Stearns dur- 

 ing two visits to Japan. A portion of the collection made in 1889- 

 '90 having been submitted to the writer for identification, it was 

 found to contain a number of new and interesting species, some of 

 which were described and figured in the Proceedings of the Academy 

 of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia for 189 J, and in the The Nauti- 

 lus. A catalogue ot this collection (pp. 20, 1 plate) was prepared 

 by Mr. Stearns, and widely circulated among naturalists. 



A much more extensive collection was secured by Mr. Stearns 

 upon bis second visit to Japan, and it was found necessary to review 

 so considerable an amount of conchological literature in its identifi- 

 cation, that it seemed desirable to collate the references to Japanese 

 mollusks subsequent to the date of Dunker's excellent work, Index 

 Molluscomm maris Japonici, as well as those not contained in that 

 catalogue, and, together with descriptions and figures of the new 

 forms discovered by Mr. Stearns, to publish a new catalogue of 

 Japanese marine mollusca. The present volume contains about 500 

 species more than Dunker's Index, although a considerable number 

 of forms enumerated by him are herein considered synonyms or are 

 rejected from the Japanese list. 40 species and 8 varieties believed 

 to be new are described, including some of which diagnoses have 

 already appeared in the Nautilus, and the species of certain families, 

 such as Patellidce, Fissureltidce, etc., are somewhat critically revised. 

 In the families Rissoidce, Eulimidce and Pyramidellidic a con- 

 siderable number of forms collected by Mr. Stearns remain un- 

 identified. Although some of them are doubtless new, the literature 

 of these groups has been so overloaded with Arthur Adams' des- 

 criptions which do not describe, that intelligent work upon the 

 Japanese forms is impossible. The literature of descriptive zoology 

 furnishes but few instances of work more superficial and worthless 

 than that of this industrious dilettante. 



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