2 Prof. W. King on some 



Notwithstanding that several higlily valuable papers have 

 appeared on the shell and animal of Lingitla anatina *, my 

 investigations have not been unsuccessful in bringing to light 

 certain characters that have apparently escaped the notice of 

 previous observers, or have been insufficiently vmderstood by 

 them. These and other characters are of so much importance 

 in elucidating the shells of some imperfectly known fossils as 

 to induce me to make them known to palaeontologists. 



Few, if any, shells exceed in interest those belonging to the 

 genus Lingula. Occurring in rocks that were formed in what 

 may be regarded in the present stage of geology as the oldest 

 life-period of our planet, and being represented in every rock- 



* Mr, Davidson lias kindly furnished me with most of the items of the 

 folhnving list of authors who have contributed to elucidate the anatomy 

 of Linyula. I have made a few additions to the list, principally of 

 authors who have described either fossil or recent species of the genus. 

 BbuguiJire. This author established the genus Limjula in the Encyclop. 



Methodique, 1789. 

 CuviER. *' Memoire sur les Lingules," Mem. du Museum, vol. i., 1802. 

 Lamarck. Animaux sans Vertebres, tome vi., 1819. 

 Owen. Transactions of the Zoological Society, vol. i., 1835. 

 VoGT. "Anatomie der Lingula anatina" Neue Denkschriften der all- 



gemeinen Schweizerischen Gesellschaft fiir die gesammte Wissen- 



schaften, Bd. vii., 1843. 

 SowERBY, G. B. Thesaurus Conchyliorum, 1846 : recent Lingulas. 

 Owen. In Davidson's ' Introduction to the British Fossil Brachiopoda ;' 



Monograph of the Palasoutogi'aphical Society, 1853. 

 Huxley, Proceedings of the lioyal Society, vol. viii., 1854. 

 Woodward, Manual of [Mollusca, 1854. 



Owen. Lectures on the Invertebrate Animals, 2nd edition, 1855. 

 Hancock. Transactions of the Royal Society, vol. cxlviii. 2nd part, 



1855. 

 GB.A.TIOLET (P.). " liltudes anatomiques sur la Lingule anatine ;" Journal 



de Conchyliologie, 18G0. 

 Reeve, Conchologia Iconica, 1861 : recent Lingulas. 

 Semper. Zeitschrift fur wissenschaftliche Zoologie, vols. xi. and xiv., 



1860, 1864. 

 Adams. Annals and Mag. Nat. Hist., vol. xi., 1863 : Japanese IJngulae. 

 Davidson. Palaeontographical Soc. Monogi'aphs; British Fossil Brachio- 

 poda: Lingulas, 

 Morse, American Journal of Science, vol. 1., 1870. 

 Dall. American Journal of Conchology, vol. vi. part ii., 1870. 

 Davidson. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, 1871 : 



Japanese Lingulas. 

 Hall. Notes on some new or imperfectly kno^vn Forms* among the 



Brachiopoda, &c., 1872 : Lower Palseozoic Lingidas. 

 Other authors, as De Blaiuville, Deshayes, Captain King, Stimpson, 

 Hinds, Broderip, and Salter, have more or less contributed information on 

 LitKjula, Bonin and Vivier are cited by Semper ; but I have not been 

 able to ascertain any thing respecting their work, except that it is 

 anatomical. 



