417 MELVILL AND STANDEN : SHELLS FROM LIFU. 



due east of the large island of New Caledonia, and not wry far 

 within the tropics, namely long. 168 E. lat. 22 S. 



They occupy a very central position in the great Indo- 

 Pacific province, if we may still he allowed to consider Australia 

 a portion of that region. They belong to France, and to 

 French conchologists, notably MM. Crosse, Fischer, Souverbie, 

 (lassies, Lambert, Montrouzier, and now Hervier, we are in- 

 debted for our knowledge of their mollusca, M. Crosse, for 

 instance, has only lately (Journ. de Conch., vol. \liii.) con- 

 cluded his exhaustive list of the terrestrial mollusca of the New 

 Caledonian region ; but, so far as we could gather, no cata- 

 logue existed of the marine mollusca of the Loyalty Islands, 

 which include the three islands of Lifu, Mare, and Uvea. This 

 led to our publishing a list, as complete as we could make it, 

 consisting only of those species found in the Hadfield collec- 

 tions, which number nearly 630 species. We now regret 

 having mentioned the terrestrial mollusca, which were insig- 

 nificant in number, and of no novelty ; but it was far other- 

 wise as regarded the marine portion, more particularly the 

 Gastropoda. 



In this enumeration twenty-one new species were described, 

 in one or two cases from single or but two or three specimens. 

 It is very gratifying, therefore, to be able to say, now that the 

 third consignment has been thoroughly examined and over- 

 hauled, that some of the species are represented in considerable 

 numbers, e.g., Minolia glaphyrella, many ; Mitra nitidissima, 

 many, including a crimson-red variety, the normal form being 

 pitchy shining black ; Mangi/ia theskela, a great number; Murex 

 (Ocinebra) benedictus, twenty specimens ; but on the other hand 

 it is curious that Diala Hardyi, of which there are man)- in the 

 former collections, is entirely absent from this assortment. 



This third consignment was forwarded to Mr. R, D. 

 Darbishire, early in 1896, and consisted of a large packing- 

 case, filled with parti)' sifted shell-sand. When treated to 

 further sorting through a sieve, the richness of the material 



