Descriptions of and Notes upon the Species 

 OF THE Genera Murex and Typhis, known 



AND RECORDED TO ExiST ON THE CoAST OF 



THE Colony of South Australia. 



By W. T. Bedi^all. 



[Read September 8, 1885.] 



In presenting this paper to the Eoyal Society of Soutli Aus- 

 1;ralia I am actuated by tlie wish to place such information as 

 1 have obtained on the subject at their disposal, and also that 

 through this channel the same may be communicated to authors, 

 students, and collectors elsewhere. Mr. Gr. W. Tryon's 

 "Manual of Conchology," a recent and most valuable work, 

 comprehending all the known species up to the date of publica- 

 iion, has afforded me considerable assistance in checking our 

 own species, but at the same time it has shown me that concho- 

 logical authors and collectors are still very much at a loss for 

 authentic information as to the habitats and local distribution 

 of many shells ; indeed, notwithstanding the zeal with which 

 in these days of scientific travelling and exploration every 

 ■corner of the globe is ransacked for new treasures, the number 

 of species still with " habitats unknown " attached to them is 

 remarkable. As Conservator of one of the most magnifi- 

 cent collections in the world — that of Philadelphia — -Mr. 

 Tryon, has facilities for comparison and reference that cannot 

 possibly be enjoyed by students in distant countries; and the 

 «ame may be said of the curators of the splendid museums of 

 England and the Continent. But in their limited sphere local 

 vcollectors have opportunities of doing service to science by dis- 

 tributing specimens and recording personal observations, by 

 which means the many difiiculties of identification which so 

 sorely trouble the naturalist will gradually be lessened, and 

 authors will be saved the unpleasantness of again and again 

 giving new names to the same shell. As an instance in point, 

 one of the species included in this paper is fettered with no less 

 than four different names, besides a probable fifth. 



We have five recorded species of Murex, four of which are 

 known to local collectors. 



Genus Mtjeex, Linnaeus. 

 M. (Pteeo]S'otus) trifoemis. — Eeeve, ConcTiologia Iconica, pi. 

 13, f . 53. — Shell angularly elongate and absolutely triangular 



