THE RECENT AND FOSSIL MOLLUSKS OF THE GENUS 

 ALABINA FROM THE WEST COAST OF AMERICA. 



By Paul Bartsch, 



Assistant Curator, Division of Mollusks, U. S. National Museum. 



The first record that we find for Alabina on the west coast of 

 America was made by Dr. P. P. Carpenter in the Report for the 

 British Association for the Advancement of Science for 1863, pub- 

 hshed in 1864. Here he writes (page 612) that Mesalia tenui- 

 sculpta, n. s., occurs in shoal water at San Diego, and on page 655 

 of the same report he adds, ' ' Mesalia tenuisculpta, n. s. Very small, 

 slender, whirls rounded, lip waved, shoal water San Diego, Cp." 

 (Cooper). This description is further supplemented by him in 1866 

 in the Proceedings of the California Academy of Natural Sciences, 

 volume 3, page 216, where he gives a detailed description of the species 

 and queries its position in the genus Mesalia by placing a question 

 mark before it. 



In the last paper (page 219) Doctor Carpenter also described 

 Styliferina turrita, which is now referred to Alahina. 



In 1894 Mr. Henry Hemphill published a description of EulimeUa 

 occidentalis in the fourth volume of Zoe (page 395). A fourth spe- 

 cies was described by Doctor Dall and myself in the Nautilus, volume 

 15 (pages 58 and 59), in 1901 under the name of Bittium (ElacMsta) 

 californicum. 



Since the last was described a very large number of shell dredg- 

 ings made by the U. S. Bureau of Fisheries steamer Albatross have 

 been examined, which have yielded quite a number of additional 

 species. Considerable work has also been done on the Tertiary 

 faunas of the west coast, and these too have returned some inter- 

 esting new forms, all of which are here described and figured." 



« In the preparation of the present diagnoses the following terminology is used: 

 "Axial sculpture," the markings which extend from the summit of the whorla 

 toward the umbilicus. 

 The axial sculpture may be — 



"Vertical," when the markings are in general parallelism with the axis of the shell. 

 " Protractive, " when the markings slant forward from the preceding suture. 

 "Retractive," when the markings slant backward from the suture. 

 "Spiral sculpture," the markings following the directions of the coils of the whorls. 



Proceedings U. S. National Museum, Vol. 39— No. 1790. 



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