99 



Synallaxes for examination a short time since, and most liberally 

 offered to allow me to describe any I might think new. A single 

 example of the present species which was in the collection seems 

 different from any previously named. I have therefore taken advan- 

 tage of Mr. Eyton's kindness to give characters to it under the 

 specific title of S. caniceps. There is no other member of the genus 

 that I am acquainted with that much resembles it in colouringr The 

 rectrices are ten in number. 



Mr. Eyton's jS. modesta, described in ' Contributions to Ornitho- 

 logy' (1851, p. 159), of which the types are in his collection, is one 

 of a small group of species from Bolivia, Chili and Patagonia, con- 

 sisting of S.Jlavigularis, Gould, S. sordida, Less. and S. brunnea, 

 Gould ; but I am doubtful whether all the four are really specifically 

 distinct. 



Professor Reichenbach, in his ' Handbuch der SpecieUen Ornitho- 

 logie,' has chopped up the genus Synallaxis into seven or eight 

 different sections. Some of these ought no doubt to be adopted, 

 but the Professor has unfortunately referred some of the most closely 

 aUied species to different sections, and I think it better therefore to 

 continue the employmeut of the old name for the whole of them, 

 until a more accurate revision and arrangement of the whole of the 

 species can be made. 



5. On the Position of the Genus Proserpina in the 

 System, and a Description of its Dentition 

 By Dr. j. e. Gray, F.R.S., P.B.S., etc. 



In the Synopsis of the British Museum for 1840 (p. 129), I 

 mention amongst the genera of Helicidce which have a thin edge to 

 the mouth of the shell a genus named Proserpina. It is peculiar 

 amongst land shells for having a series of laminse revolving in the 

 throat, and the outer surface of the shell polished. This genus has 

 been adopted by Sowerby, Pfeiffer, Jonas, and most other authors. 



Mr. Duclos referred the species to the genus Caroeolla ; Adams, 

 Pfeiffer, and Jonas in some of their earlier works having considered 

 them as species of the ektended genus HeUx. 



M, d'Orbigny in his work on the MoUusca of Guba, renamed the 

 genus Odostoma, and referred it with doubt to the family Cyclo- 

 stomideB. 



Though the shell is far from uncommon in the West Indies, Guba, 

 and some parts of the American continent, the animal escaped the 

 researches of Guilding, Adams, Chitty, d'Orbigny and other observers. 

 In 1854, when in Berne, my friend, Dr. Shuttleworth, informed me 

 it had two subulate tentacles, with the eyes sessile on the outer side 

 of their base ; and Mr. Bland has mentioned that the animal has no 

 operculum, and absorbs the septa between the upper whorls of the 

 spire, likę some species of the genera Neritina, Auricula, Helicina, 

 Stomastoma, and a few Helices. 



