Capt. Portlock on the yenus Cardinia. 343 



With respect to the species of Cijanocitta which I supposed to 

 be new, and wliich I deuoniinated C. siiperci/iosa, the synonyms 

 quoted in Mr. Gray's work under C. ultramarina have induced 

 me to consult the ' Zoolog)^ of Ca])t. 13cechey's Voyage/ and I 

 there find the species in question figured and described by INIr. 

 Vigors under the name of Garrulus culij'ornicus. The distinctions 

 between it and C ultramarina of ^lexico [Garrulus sordiclus, 

 Swains.) arc there correctly pointed out, although all subsequent 

 authors have continued to imite these two species. My proposed 

 specific name of superciliosa must therefore give way to ]\lr. Vi- 

 gors's prior appellation of californica, and the extreme difficulty 

 of obtaining ready access to every zoological work must be my 

 a])ology for having added one more to the ten or twelve thousand 

 superfiuous specific synonyms ^^■hich already exist in ornithology 

 alone. 



I may add that the " Pica Sieheri " of Wagler is certainly a 

 spionym of C. ultramarina, not a distinct species as Mr. Gray 

 makes it. 



L. — Note on Mr. H. E. Strickland's Paper on the genus Cardinia 

 [Agassiz). By Capt. Portlock, R.E. 



Corfu, March 11, 1845. 

 The paper of Mr. Strickland* contains this passage : " Some au- 

 thors have been disposed to extend the geological range of this 

 genus, by including in it those species from the coal-measm'cs 

 which Sowerby and most other paleontologists have regarded as 

 true Unionida. ^Vhether Agassiz originally proposed this exten- 

 sion of the genus I am not aware, having never yet been able to 

 meet with his translation of the ' ^Mineral Conchology,' in which 

 the group is first defined; but in his last work on the subject, 

 the ' Etudes critiques sur les ]\lollusques fossiles,' he seems to 

 regard Cardinia as exclusively confined to the lias and lower 

 oolite.'' 



Having before me the German translation by Agassiz of the 

 ' ]Mineral Conchology,' I am enabled to remove this doubt of 

 Mr. Strickland, and to render his history of the new genus Car- 

 dinia complete. 



To the generic description of the genus Unio (plate 33, Min. 

 Conch.) Sowerby appended this remark : " Several species of this 

 genus are abundant in the iron-stone bed of Derby shii'c, called the 

 mussel- band," &e. ; and at this passage occurs Agassiz' first note 

 upon the subject, the words of which are : " These bivalves from 

 the stone-coal formation which have been classed by Sowerby in 

 the genus Unio are very diflerent from it, as I have satisfied my- 

 * Annals, vol. xiv. p. 100. 



