320 PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 
him had been discriminated in some way from those quoted from other 
authors, whose localities or identifications may not have been accurate, 
or at least may not have been confirmed. It is known to most persons 
interested that the Smithsonian collection of East American shells, es- 
pecially those belonging south of New York, was in the hands of Dr. 
Stimpson, and with his own matchless collection was destroyed totally 
by the fire at Chicago in 1871. 
Under these circumstances, believing it better to make some sort of 
start at cataloging the shells of our southern coast (even at the risk of 
some erroneous identifications) than fo wait for opportunities which do 
not seem likely to be soon offered, the present list has been prepared in 
the hope that its deficiencies may stimulate others to correct and en- 
large it from specimens actually obtained on the spot. Early collectors 
were less careful about localities than those of the present day, and fre- 
quently took the careless assertions of sailors and dealers as a sufficient 
statement for determining lots of shells which were often mixed with 
others from different regions. Varieties were often independently de- 
scribed as distinct species, and allied species lumped by undiscriminat- 
ing writers or collectors under one name. This is very evident in some 
of the publications cited. In the present paper no attempt has been 
made to elaborate synonymy. 
The present collection comprises only small and inconspicuous spe- 
cies. The large and common forms, though doubtless collected, were 
not sent. The careful notes as to station and locality made by Mr. 
Hemphill greatly increase the value of the catalogue. Jew collectors 
equal him in painstaking care in these particulars, and the reputation 
he has so justly gained on the western coast will only be enhanced by 
his Florida work. 
Several forms appear to be new. They are described subject to fu- 
ture corrections, but only after carefully searching the literature and 
monographs in vain. It is possible that some of them may have been 
previously named, yet if this should prove to be the case no great harm 
will ensue. Those identified from descriptions without figures are 
marked with an asterisk. Mr. W. G. Binney has kindly examined the 
Pulmonates and identified several doubtful species for me. 
It must be clearky understood that the list makes no pretensions to 
completeness. 
The fauna of South Florida is largely identical with that of the West 
Indies, and presents a curious mixture of tropical and temperate forms. 
When the species are thoroughly known the analogies between this 
fauna and that of the western coast of America in the same latitude 
will perhaps appear more prominently than at present. Certain west 
coast species have been wrongly ascribed to Florida, but there are some 
which are common to the two regions, and quite a number which present 
marked similarity, though entitled to different specific names. Certain 
northern species appear here with their ordinary characters; others 
