Bibliographical .\utices. 65 



Norway, for the express purpose of examining public and private 

 collections of European shells, and especially the types of species 

 described by O. F. Muller and subsequent writers on Scandinarian 

 conchology. Every naturalist will appreciate the advantage of such 

 an undertaking, being aware that our own fauna and flora cannot 

 be properly studied apart from that of the rest of Europe. These 

 prelimmary remarks are offered to explain the cause of delay in the 

 appearance of the present volume, and likewise to express my grateful 

 acknowledgments for the kind welcome and aid which I received 

 from all the leading zoologists in the countries above mentioned." 



Such are Mr. Jelfreys's opening words in the preface to the second 

 volume of ' British Conchology,' which we have the pleasure of in- 

 troducing to our readers. The work which the author has under- 

 taken is to him a labour of love, and he is determined to spare neither 

 trouble nor expense in order to make it a complete history of the 

 Mollusca of Great Britain. There is no cause to regret the interval 

 of two years which has elapsed between the publication of the first 

 and second volumes. It is evident that that time has been profitably 

 spent in the accumulation of additional knowledge respecting the 

 shells of our coast ; and as we have read we have not failed to re- 

 cognize repeated instances of the value of the results of the author's 

 visit to Scandinavia and his extended dredging in the deep waters of 

 the Shetland Seas. 



The volume before us embraces the Brachiopoda (here rightly 

 separated as a distinct class from the Conchifera) and the Conchi- 

 fera from Anomia to Scrobicularia, and contains descriptions of 130 

 species. At the present rate of progress, therefore, we must expect 

 tnat at least two more volumes will be required to complete the work. 

 The generic and specific descriptions are worked out with great care, 

 and the latter will be found to be both more methodical in arrange- 

 ment and more concise and clear in definition than those of Forbes 

 and llanley. Tlie descriptions in this latter work labour under the 

 disadvantage of being too long ; and thus, from the prolixity with 

 which minor and comparatively unimportant details are enumerated, 

 the student often finds himself perplexed to discover the chief cha- 

 racteristics which distinguish the species from its allies. 



The revised list of the portion of the British Mollusca here de- 

 scribed shows considerable diversity from that presented to us, ten 

 years since, by the authors of the ' British Mollusca.' In the interval, 

 Mr. Jeffreys has from time to time published in our pages papers 

 entitled " Gleanings in British Conchology." In these papers were 

 first made known as British many of the species which he now more 

 fully describes in his present work. He has acted wisely, however, 

 in reconsidering the grounds upon which he inserted many so-called 

 species in those " Gleanings," and in reducing them again to the 

 level of varieties; but we venture to tliink that, having in some instances 

 previously gone to one extreme in species-splitting, ne is now showing 

 a tendency to the opposite extreme in striking out of our fauna 

 several well-marked specific forms. The following lists will show the 



Ann. i)^ Mag, N, Hist. Scr. 3. VoL\\y. 5 



