8 RECENT AUSTRALIAN CONCHOLOGY. 



in Australia, or — what I am more inclined to think — 

 this Physa, like some of the birds, may be of American 

 origin." Yet Mr. E. A. Smith in a paper read before the 

 Linnean Society of New South Wales, April 21st, 1881, 

 gives the names of fifty-two species of Australian Physas 

 and one of Physopsis. 



Mr. H. B. Preston, F.L.S., is one of the best known 

 writers on land-shells. He has published papers on the 

 Pulmonata from all parts of the world, including recent 

 ones on Chinese, Nigerian, British East African, South 

 African, and Uruguayan shells. To Australian conchology 

 his study of shells from the Montebello Islands, West Aus- 

 tralia, is a valuable addition Several parcels of Queens- 

 land mollusca have been sent to Mr. Preston, among which 

 were a few new species. 



For a record of Victorian marine mollusca, and for 

 the determination of many new species, we are indebted 

 during recent years mainly to Mr. J. H. Gatliff, at first in 

 conjunction with Mr. G. B. Pritchard, but for the last 

 seven years in collaboration with Mr. C. J. Gabriel. Over 

 one thousand marine species have been recorded from 

 Victorian waters. An index of seven hundred and sixty- 

 five species was given in the Proceedings of the Royal 

 Society of Victoria, in 1905,* and between two and three 

 hundred additions have since been announced. In illus- 

 tration of new species, Mr. Gatliff and his colleagues have 

 at times made use of photographs of large shells taken 

 on a black background. These are particularly clear and 

 definite, and, where the copies are struck off distinctly, 

 are of more use to collectors and workers generally than 

 a drawing. This will be readily acknowledged by any 

 expert studying such an illustration as Plate XV., of Proc. 

 Roy. Soc, Victoria, 1903. 



South Australian conchologists have been assisted in 

 their studies by the labours of Dr. J. C. Verco, who published 

 a list of nine hundred and sixty Adelaidean species, in 1908, 

 to supersede the out of date and out of print list published 

 by Adcock in 1893- For over twenty years Dr. Verco has 

 devoted himself to this branch of biology, and has now one 



* Proc. Roy. Soc, Vic, 18 (N.S.), Pt. II., pp. 70-92. 



