THE NAUTILUS. 29 



Tampico, in river debris, abundant. 



This tiny snail seems to be at least subgenerically distinct from 

 Ccecilianella (Cecilioides) by the very obtuse summit and short wide 

 spire. It is closely related to A. consobrina Orb. 



IN EE CYTHEREA PETECHIALS OF CARPENTER'S MAZATLAN 

 CATALOGUE. 



BY ROBERT E. C. STEARNS. 



In Dr. Dall's "Synopsis of the Family Veneridae," l etc., he re- 

 marks "Cytherea petechialis Lamarck, 1818, is listed by Carpenter 

 from Mazatlan having been found among the Reigen shells, but it is 

 certainly exotic, none having appeared from there for half a cen- 

 tury." 



It is not unlikely that the shell collected by Reigen was an ex- 

 ample of the exceedingly rare and handsome variety of Macrocallista 

 (Chionella) squalida, the color markings of which are suggestive of 

 the Asiatic petechialis. In my paper on " The Shells of the Tres 

 Marias," 3 etc., etc., under Cytherea (Callista) chionxa I refer to the 

 matter. I have never seen more than half a dozen examples of the 

 variety. The National Museum contains if I am not mistaken two 

 or more specimens. 



I am quite familiar with squalida as well as petechialis having had 

 a great many of both species, and for many years distributed both 

 freely in the course of exchanges. The "West Coast species is com- 

 mon in Scammon's Lagoon with Macron ^HJthiops Reeve (= M. 

 Kellettii Hinds) and elsewhere on both sides of the peninsula and in 

 the Gulf of California. 



THE U. S. COAST SURVEY EXPEDITION TO ALASKA IN THE YEAR 1867. 



BY ROBERT E. C. STEARNS. 



If not a stroke of genius, it was a timely inspiration that caused 

 Dr. C. Hart Merriam to expand what might have been hardly more 

 than a notable pleasure excursion into an important scientific expe- 

 dition. Probably never before were so many eminent scientific men 

 brought together, and under such agreeable circumstances, as formed 



'Proc. U. 8. Nat. Museum, p. 408, vol. xxvi, 1 

 2 Proc. U. S. Nat. Museum, p. 153, vol. xvii, 1894. 



