BAHAMA MOLLUSKS AXD BRACHIOPODS. j^ 



been obtained by any subsequent collector. In my reports on 

 the Mollusca of the Blake expedition 1 a large number of 

 species from the Antillean region were described and illus- 

 trated, while others derived from the dredgings of the United 

 States Fish Commission Steamer Albatross in the Gulf of 

 Mexico, Florida Strait and the southeastern continental pla- 

 teau of the United States, were described in the Proceedings 

 of the United States National Museum. 2 



The above are the principal sources of the more modern 

 information in regard to the marine Mollusks of this region. 

 Manv of the Blake species were described from single speci- 

 mens and the value and interest of the collections of the Uni- 

 versity Bahama expedition arise chiefly from the fact that 

 quite a number of these unique forms reappear in the material 

 obtained from the Pourtales Plateau. The total amount of the 

 material dredged there by the expedition was not large, but 

 every specimen is precious. Among the shells, had the col- 

 lection been larger, a proportion of new forms might have 

 been expected; but, as it was. none occurred. Curiously 

 enough in comparatively shallow water near the Florida Keys. 

 a fine new species of Murex was obtained, to which I have 

 attached the name of Prof. C. C. Nutting the director of the 

 expedition: and on Water Cay. Salt Cay Bank, near the north- 

 ern end of the Bahamas group, was obtained a form of Cerion 

 which appears to be distinct from any yet described. Descrip- 

 tions of these species and a list of all the species obtained, with 

 localities, is appended. 



Murex nuttingi n. s. 

 Plate i. — Fig. i. 



Shell white with a pale straw-colored epidermis and eight 

 whorls exclusive of the (lost) nucleus; suture deep, whorls 



1 Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool. vi, No. 3, Feb. 1SS0; ix, No. 2, July-Dec. iSSi, 

 and xii, No. 6, Sep. 1SS6. 



2 Especially No. 773, vol. xn, pp. 219-362, pi. v-xiv, 18S9. See also Bull. 

 U. S. Nat. Mus. No. 37, Preliminary Catalogue of the Shell-bearing Marine 

 Mollusks and Brachiopods of the southeastern coast of the United States, 

 S 221 pp. 74 plates, 1SS9. 



