Melampus, Pedipes, and Truncatella. 281 
distinguished the same shell, along with several others generically related 
toit, by the name of Conovulus; but he afterwards re-united this genus 
to his 4uricule, placing it amongst the air-breathing Gasteropoda. an 
association in which he has been followed, though not without some 
appearance of hesitation, by the Baron de Feérussac in his valuable and 
masterly Tableau Systematique. Cuvier, however, had long before in 
his Régne Animal, first edition, adopted both De Montfort’s genus and 
name; though he considered the shells included in it* as fluviatile, and 
placed the genus between his Auricules and Actéons /Tornatelle) ,; all 
three being arranged along with Pyramidella at the end of his “‘ Pulmonés 
** aquatiques.’’ Sowerby has also not failed to perceive both the 
characters of the present group, and its true affinities.t 
It is not necessary to enter into the question of priority respecting the 
names Melampus and Conovulus; for the last, being composed of the 
names of two established genera, is totally inadmissible by the common 
rules of nomenclature. But it will be necessary to enter a little at large 
into the reasons which have caused me to dissent in more important 
particulars from the united authorities of a Cuvier, a Lamarck, and a 
‘erussac as to the affinities of the present genus, and the nature of the 
respiratory organs. 
The foregoing generic description is drawn up from two species, both 
apparently new, which I have had abundant opportunities of studying. 
They both occur on the North Coast of Madeira, between high and low 
water mark on the beach, lurking beneath the lowest stratum of large 
rounded stones of which it is composed, at the depth of two or three feet 
below the surface. The singularity of this habitat led me at once to 
suspect the true nature of the animal: and since all efforts at dissection, 
to ascertain the nature of the branchial system, were baffled by the small 
size of the species, I had recourse to a series of experiments, of which 
the following are abstracts as they stand in my notes, 
Experiment 1. 
A number of the animals of Melampus equalis with others of Pedipes 
* Viz. Voluta minuta, Gmel. (Bulimus coniformis, Brug.) Bulimus monilis, 
Brug., and Bul, ovulus, Brug. 
+ See Pyramidella, Sowerb, Gen. J cannot, however, agree with my friend 
Mr. Sowerby inadopting Lamarck’s name, Conovulus. 
