A Month on the Trondhjem Fiord. 441 
LXIIL—4A Month on the Trondhjem Fiord. By the Rev. 
Canon Norman, M.A., D.C.L., F.R.S., &e. 
[Continued from p. 367. ] 
[Plate XIX. ] 
BRACHIOPODA. 
1. Yerebratulina caput-serpentis, Linn. 
Trondhjem. 
Var. septentrionalis, Couthouy. 
Rédberg, on the precipices. I have always re- 
garded, and must still regard, this as only a variety 
of 7. caput-serpentis, notwithstanding the opposite 
opinion held by G. O. Sars*, Davidson f, and 
Fischer and Gthlert f. Sars thought he had found 
a permanent difference in the structure of the loop; 
but that has been proved not to be the case; the 
later authors rely on trifling differences, and I 
cannot find anything, either by the comparison of 
the hundreds of specimens which have passed 
through my hands or in the descriptions given, 
on which to found a valid species ; the more speci- 
mens are examined the weaker is the evidence of 
real distinction, and T. caput-serpentis, var. germana, 
F. & Ci, is a mere link in a chain. Davidson 
quotes in the memoir referred to, without apparently 
the least suspicion that anything was wrong, these 
words from Binney’s edition of Gould’s ‘ Report 
Invert: Massachusetts’ :—“ The downy epidermis 
is a character too rare and too singular to be over- 
looked. This, however, is rubbed off very easily.” 
In his description of the species also Gould had 
written :—“ ‘The whole [?. e. shell] covered by a 
thin, silvery, fibrous epidermis ;” and, again, 
“Deshayes conjectures, probably with justice, that 
* G. O. Sars, ‘ Mollusca reg. arct. Norwegie,’ 1878, p. 10. 
+ Davidson, “Mon. Recent Brachiopoda,’ Trans. Linn. Soc. ser. 2, 
vol. iv. (1886), p. 28. ; : ; ’ 
{ Fischer and Cthlert, Exped. Sci. ‘Travailleur’ et ‘Talisman,’ Bra- 
chiopodes, 1891, p. 29; and Result des Campag. Sci. Prince Monaco, 
fase. iil., Brachiopodes de Atlan. Nord, 1892, p. 9. 
