136 DR. W. BAIRD AND MR. J. K. LORD (Mar. 8, 
the head and root of the tail, symmetrically placed; six to eight 
lines of red spots on each side, broken and terminating in small 
points towards the belly ; buff-coloured irregular spots on the sides 
among the red lines; belly bright yellow, passing into cinereous to- 
wards the roots of the posterior and anterior extremities; legs and 
tail spotted with red towards their proximal ends, with white spots 
towards their extremities; head irregularly marked with red and 
white spots having a transverse direction. Iris light cinereous, 
tympanum sunken and covered with loose skin.’ 
«This is a homely description, but I give it to you verbatim as it 
is in my Journal, and am sorry that I had not the latter to refer to 
in London when I left you the specimen. 
“Lastly, I notice, p. 237, in the fifth paragraph from the top, 
l. c., that an error has crept into my statement, in the word ‘ An- 
thropophagi,’ which ought to have been ‘ Chelonophagi’ (Turtle- 
eaters)... It will not do to make mistakes of this kind; and these 
poor people, degraded as they are, I trust will never come to this.” 
12. ReMARKS ON A SPECIES OF SHELL BELONGING TO THE 
Famity Dentauiips. By W. Bairp, M.D., F.L.S.; with 
Nores oN THEIR Use By THE NATIVES OF VANCOUVER’S 
IsLAND AND BririsH CotumsiA, BY J. K. Lorp, F.Z.S. 
Amongst the objects of natural history and ethnology brought 
from Vancouver’s Island and British Columbia by Mr. Lord is a 
belt composed of numerous specimens of a species of Dentalium 
strung together. The species bears an exceedingly close resemblance 
to that described by Linneeus as Dentalium entalis (Entalis vulgaris 
of Risso and of Dr. Gray’s ‘ Guide to Mollusca’ ), and appears to me, 
notwithstanding the difference of habitat, to be undistinguishable 
from that European species. It has, however, been described by 
the late Mr. Nuttall as Dentalium pretiosum ; and a figure has been 
given of it by Mr. Sowerby in one of his late Numbers of the ‘ The- 
saurus Conchyliorum.’ 
From a careful comparison of the typical specimens of D. pretio- 
sum in Mr. Cuming’s collection, there can be no doubt of the iden- 
tity of that species with the specimens brought by Mr. Lord from 
Vancouver’s Island ; those in Mr. Cuming’s collection are said to be 
from California. In examining the old graves on the banks of the 
Columbia River, along with numerous other articles, such as human 
bones, flint instruments, &c., Mr. Lord found a number of specimens 
of a species of Dentalium considerably eroded and worn, which I 
have compared with some in Mr, Cuming’s collection, and find iden- 
tical with the Dentalium striolatum of Stimpson, from Newfound- 
land. I strongly suspect that both this species (D. striolatum) and 
D. pretiosum are only very slight varieties of the old Linnean spe- 
cies Dentalium entalis (Entalis vulgaris). The habitats of all three 
(species?) are very different from each other; but, notwithstanding 
