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394 PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. | 
SOLENOCONCHA. 
Dentalium occidentale Stimp. 
Shells of New England, 1851 (based on D. dentate Gould, Ist ed., p. 155, fig. 
5, not of European authors). 
Dentalium dentale Gould, Invert. of Mass., 2d ed., p. 266. 
Dentalium abyssorum M. Sars, 1858. 
Dentalium striolatum Jeffreys (non Stimpson). 
Antalis striolata G. O. Sars, Moll. Reg. Arct. Norv.,p. 101, pl. 7, fig. 1; pl. 20, 
figs. 10 a,b; pl. i, figs. 1 a—c, dentition (non Stimpson sp.). 
This species is abundant on muddy bottoms, in 50 to 300 fathoms, all 
along the coast of New England and Nova Scotia. 
Mr. Jeffreys, misled by a singular and unaccountable mistake, has 
constantly applied to this sulcated species the name given by Stimpson 
to our common, shallow-water, nearly smooth form. In this mistake G. 
O. Sars and others have followed him. 
The question as to the specific distinctness of these two forms I do not 
propose to discuss at this time, but it is equally desirable that the 
respective names should be correctly applied, whether we regard the 
forms as varieties or species.. Of D. striolatum, I have dredged thou- 
sands of specimens in shallow water in the Bay of Fundy, in the same 
region where Stimpson’s original specimens were taken, and among them 
no specimens of * D. occidentale” are to be found. In other localities, how- 
ever, both species occur together. Both were taken this season on the 
outer banks, off Newport. But D. occidentale was by far the most com- 
mon, and was abundant in the deeper stations, where D. striolatum did 
not occur at all. 
Among the specimens taken by us there are many that are more 
strongly ribbed and suleated than usual, the ribs being more or less 
angular and elevated. In some of these, which are slender and about 
an inch long, the internal surface of the shell has grooves corresponding 
to the external ribs, the shell being thin, but of uniform thickness, so that 
the two surfaces are parallel. In others of the same size the bore of the 
shell is smooth and round, the shell being thickened opposite the ribs. 
I am not prepared, however, to say that this is anything more than a 
varietal difference. 
The form of the posterior notch varies in all our species (or varieties) 
from a shallow notch to a triangular cut, and even to a deep slit. 
Siphonodentalium vitreum Sars. 
G. O. Sars, op. cit., p. 103, pl. 7, figs. 2 a-c; pl. i, figs. 2 a—f (dentition),—Ver- 
rill, Trans. Conn. Acad., v, pl. 42, fig. 19. 
A fine, large specimen, probably belonging to this species, was 
dredged by the party on the “Bache”, in 1873, in the Gulf of Maine 
(station 12 B), in 60 fathoms, mud. 
The shell is smooth, round, very thin, transparent, and lustrous. It 
is Slightly curved and expands gradually to the anterior end. The pos- 
terior opening is small and round, without lobes, but it probably has 
