32 THE NAUTILLS. 



tributed to a number of points in the Sacramento-San-Joaquin 

 Valley as well. This is verified by specimens from an irrigating 

 ditch near Fresno received from ('. E. Jenney. It may be expected 

 to turn up elsewhere. 



A few days ago on a visit to the Coalinga Oil Fields a lengthy 

 wait at Hanford was necessary to make train connections. While 

 other passengers sat about with bored expressions or searched the 

 town for amusements, the writer welcomed it as an opportunity to 

 go forth in search of the elusive snail and walked out of town about 

 half a mile east to a dry irrigating ditch. This had recently been 

 prolific of molluscan life, and while scratching in the dried weeds for 

 Pisidia a specimen of another Vivipara was found. Pisidia were 

 forgotten and a systematic " muckraking " of every weed up and 

 down the ditch for a hundred yards was only interrupted by the roar 

 of the coming train. The spoils proved to be Vivipara japonica 

 Mart., a number of which were still alive, though the ditch from all 

 evidences had been dry for months. 



V. japonica may be readily distinguished from maUeatus by its 

 sharper more acute spire, flatter whorls and fine spiral striae instead 

 of the four lines of revolving punctures. The carinate base is 

 usually retained throughout life while in nil introduced maUeatus 

 seen it becomes obsolete before maturity is reached. 



The Japanese, who are also fond of these, call them Tanisha or 

 rice snails. 



Pilsbry and Johnson (Nautilus, VII, 1894, p. 144) note that 

 Taylor reports Paludina japonica (= Vivipara^ from the Chinese 

 markets of Victoria, B. C. 



NEW JAPANESE NATICIDAE AND SCALARIIDAE. 



BY HENRY A. PILSBRY, 



Polinices pila, n. sp. 



The shell is umbilicate, globular, with a short, conic spire ; brown 

 with lighter streaks, and partially covered with a very thin cuticle, 

 worn from the back, which is somewhat flesh-colored. The surface 

 is smooth except for fine, faint growth-lines which are strongly re- 



