1894. PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. 725 



Others obtained by Mr. Frederick Stearns in Japan sliowed the same 

 features. The loop is a very solid one as a whole, but the connecting 

 bands which unite the upper witli the lower branches of the brachidium 

 are narrow and rather frail; they had probably been lost in the speci- 

 men figured by Van Iterson in Part ii of Davidson's Monograph, pi. 

 XV, fig. 12. 



LAQUEUS CALIFORNICUS, Koch. 



Laqiiciis californicHS (Koch), Daix, Am. Jouru. Conch., vi, j). 123, pi. vii, tig. f; 

 1)1. vin,tig8.9, 10, 1870. 



Off" San Pedro in 30 fiithoms, Oldroyd. 



The original locality of this species is the coast of California. 

 Cooper dredged specimens in the vicinity of the Santa Barbara Chan- 

 nel in 90 fathoms. It was on one of these that my earlier observations 

 were based. Subseiiuently, from moderate depths of water, a smaller, 

 somewhat stunted form was collected from the Queen Charlotte Islands 

 and the coast of British Columbia. The color of the southern form is 

 of a warm reddish brown and the shell is quite thin, the foramen small 

 and delicate. The northern form is of a dirty livid yellowish white, or 

 pale brown; usuall}' it has a large foramen and heavier shell than the 

 Santa Barbara shell. Thelatter, too, when compared with a large series, 

 is wider near the cardinal border giving it a more rectangular form, 

 while the northern shell is more attenuated, and the sides slope to the 

 umbo in a straighTer line from the i)oint of greatest width. 



The Queen Charlotte Island shell was separated by Davidson as a 

 variety vancoKveyiensis (more correctly vaneouverensis), hnt his speci- 

 mens were stunted, being from relativeh' shallow water. The dredg'- 

 ings of the Albatross have shown that the northern shell also occurs in 

 the south in the same region and depth as the typical califondcus and 

 without transitions in color and form. It will, therefore, be necessary 

 to sej^arate the two forms as distinct though allied species. 



LAQl'EUS JEFFKEYSI, DaU. 



Frenula jefrei/si, Dall, Am. Nat., v, p. 55, 1871 (ismeniiform stage). Am 



Jonrn. Couch., vii, p. 65, pi. xi, tigs. 7-10, 1871. 

 Megerlia jeffveysi, Dall, Sci. Res. Expl. Alaska, p. 48, 1877. 

 Laqiieus californicus var. vavconrcrieuais, Davidsox, Mon. Rec. Brach., p. 113, 



pi. xviii, figs. 10-131), 1887 (adult). 



Stations 28G2, 3194, 3339, 3350, etc., in 75 to 238 fathoms, from the 

 Aleutian Islands to a point off" Estero Bay near San Luis Obispo, Cal., 

 the bottom temperatures varying from 37° to 48° F. The depth at 

 which the species is found increases southward, but the temperature 

 was highest off Point Arena, Cal., where several specimens were dredged 

 in 75 fathoms. Fine specimens have also been collected in Puget Sound. 



The small size of the specimens, first separated as a variety by Dr. 

 Davidson, is due to their station. The Albatross in deeper water got 

 specimens even larger than the original californicus^ and from that to 

 the earliest stages. These showed conclusively that the shell which I 



