568 



NA TURE 



[October 12, 1893 



delicate parts, such as the outer lips, long anterior canals, 

 where such existed, and any spiny projections, are 

 usually missing. With such unsatisfactory material to 

 work, upon it is little wonder the author has in many 

 casei been unable to come to any definite determination 

 as to the species; indeed in several in tances, most 

 wisely, no specific identification is attempted. 



The list given at the end shows 1 14 forms, including 

 15 which are describad as new ; but of these some had 

 better have been left unnamed till more perfect examples 

 were forthcoming, whilst in certain instances, such as 

 Voiuta stromboidis, one feels sceptical, if any reliance 

 may be placed on the figure, as to the very determination 

 of the genus. Nor is the description of these new 

 species always adequate : that of Trochus dcmersus 

 being especially insufficient. One of the figures is that 

 of an interesting example of Kcnophora, considered by 

 Dr. Dreger to be very near to, if not identical with, X. 

 subextensa, d'Orb. This individual must have possessed 

 a somewhat fastidious taste, for in heu of the ordinary 

 fragmsnti of shell and other oddments that its kindred 

 usuilly love to attach to their tenements, it selected for 

 the decoration of its house the fusiform shells of Cerithium 

 and Pleurotomx, which it disposed radially, attaching 

 them by their apices. This unwonted arrangement is 

 paralleled in a recent example of X. pa'lidula, Reeve, 

 dredged off the Philippines during the C/;a//e«^<'r expe- 

 dition, the decorative shells being those of Terebra and 

 Pleurotoma. 



The nomenclature employed by Dr. Dreger is not in 

 all instances up to that standard of exactitude which the 

 present-day devotees of the law of priority demand, and 

 undoubtedly will bear revision, and so, too, we regret to 

 see will his synonymy. Dr. Dreger's principle of giving 

 in synonymic references the name of the authority cited 

 for the species by the author who is quoted is decidedly 

 the fairest and best system and one which for our part 

 we would gladly see universally adopted. By way of 

 instance a portion of the synonymy of Cassidaria 

 ambigua, Brander is here given, omitting however for 

 sake of brevity the references to the several papers : — 



1776. Buccinum ainbii>uum, Brander, &c. 



1812. Cassis striata. Sow., &c. 



1843. Cassidaria amb'gua, Brander, Nyst, &c. 



1851. Cassis affiiiis, Pnilippi, Ike. 



1854. ,, ,, „ E. Beyrich, &c. 



l85l. ,, ,, Bjyr., GUmbel, &c. 



1864. „ ,, Phil., Giebel, &c. 



1865. ,, ambigua, Sol., v. Koenen, &c. 



Unfortunately our author has not been as careful in 

 following out his own system as he should. Moreover 

 the reference to the first description of a species is 

 frequently omitted altogether ; the descriptions from 

 Brander's " Fossilia Hantoniensia" are sometimes attri- 

 buted, and correctly, to Solander, and sometimes, as in 

 the exa nple quoted, to Brander : the synonymy is 

 frequently unduly swollen by references to mere lists 

 sucti as thxt in Gijmbel's " Geognostische Beschrei- 

 bung." 



Tne pap;r concludes with a ta'ile showing the distri- 

 bution of the 19 species which are also known to occur 

 in other localities. This is supplementary to the similar 

 table given by Giimbel {op. cit. Abth. i. pp. 60S-9). 



Turning to the second article, it is needless to remark 

 that the St. Cassian beds must ever remain a source of 

 interest to the geologist, not only on account of the 

 remarkable mixture they offer of palaeozoic with meso- 

 zoic forms of life, as evinced by the occurrence of Ortho- 

 ceras on the one hand and Ammonites on the other, but 

 als ) from the fact that so large a number of fossil species 

 are peculiar to them. 



The St. Cassian fauna has been treated monographi- 

 cally by Miinster in his " Beitrage zur Petrefacten- 



NO. 1250, VOL. 48J 



Kunde" (Hft. iv., 1841), by Klipstein in his " Beitriige 

 zur Geologischen Kenntniss der ostlichen Alpen" (1843), 

 and by Laube in a series of papers published in the 

 " Denkschriften der k. k. Akademie der Wissenschaften, 

 Wien," between 1865 and 1870. Although the last-named 

 palaeontologist added very largely to the number of 

 species known, the subject was far from being exhausted, 

 and the accumulation of fresh material has enabled Dr. 

 E. Kittl to still further augment the list of Gastropoda by 

 the addition of many new forms, mostly of small size and 

 many of very great beauty. 



The first part of this paper, published last year in the 

 preceding volume of the same serial, contained descrip- 

 tions of all the species of Scaphopoda and of Gastropoda 

 Prosobranchiata from Patella to Clanculus ; the second 

 portion now before us embraces the families represented 

 in these beds between and including the Neritida: and 

 the Littorinidae, and introduces two new genera- /Wij(»- 

 narica, in Neritidae, and Pseudoscalites in Tricho- 

 tropidas. 



The classification and nomenclature followed, it should 

 be stated, is that adopted by Zittel in his well-known 

 " Handbuch der Palreontologie," and of course sha-es the 

 merits and demerits of that system. Only in two instances 

 does our author depart from his model. The geniis 

 Chilocydus, Bronn, is restored on ihe ground that it is 

 distinct from the Cochlearia, Braun, to which Miinster 

 had referred the St. Cassian species. In the same way 

 Delphinulopsis, Laube, which has been set aside as em- 

 bracing forms referable to two gfatxa.—Nerilopsis a.nd 

 Fossariopsis — is re-established by Kittl for reasons which 

 are too technical to be dwelt on here, but which we con- 

 fess do not seem entirely satisfactory. 



To criticise so elaborate and careful a work as this in 

 detail is, indeed, not possible without seeing the actual 

 specimens, however good the figures and lucid the de- 

 scriptions may be, and we fear it would sound ungracious 

 when so much is vouchsafed us to wish that some of the 

 new types had been less fragmentary, or to express an 

 opinion, however guardedly, that some of the specimens 

 figured, besides that so acknowledged, convey the im- 

 pression of being immature and possibly the fry o: other 

 species. 



The difficulties that have to be contended with in the 

 production of a work of this sort are far from small, and 

 the conscientious pateontologist must frequently be at 

 his wits' ends to decide whether he shall refer a given 

 example, especially if imperfectly preserved, to a known 

 genus from the typical forms of which it differs consider- 

 ably, or shall incur the odium of adding another name to 

 an already overburdened nomenclature. 



Take such an instance as that heie afforded by the 

 genus Scalaria (or should we write Scala?). Amongst 

 the species are forms which the synonymy shows were 

 referred by so able a pateontologist as Laube to the 

 very distinct genera Turbo, Trochus, and Turritella! 

 A glance at the figures shows how far these forms depart 

 from those we have been accustomed to associate with 

 the old familiar Wentle-traps, and it is little wonder thai 

 Dr. Kittl suggests the desirability of establishing a new 

 subgeneric name for some of the St. Cassian species : we 

 think he would be justified in even founding a new genu; 

 to receive them. 



The plates that accompany this paper are admirable 

 bits of drawing, but the figures would in most instance; 

 have been more satisfactory for working purposes had 

 more of them been enlarged, and those that are enlarged 

 yet further magnified. The double numeration of these 

 plates is, moreover, both clumsy and unnecessary. 



It is very interesting to observe in how many of the 

 species of Naticopsis the colour markings seem to have 

 been preserved, nor is this the less remarkable bec.iuse 

 instances of a similar description from yet older forma- 

 tions are on record. (BV)-. 



