1879.] MR. W. H. DALL ON THE GENERIC NAME GOULDIA. 131 



5. PUFFINUS OBSCURUS. 



ProceUaria obscura, Gm. Syst. Nat. i. p. 559. 



Puffinus obscurus, Finsch, Journ. Mus. GodefF. Heft xii. p. 40. 



Hab. Manua, Sanioan Islands {T. Powell). 



Native name "Taio,"=Taiko. 



Mr. Powell says that these birds are found in the mountains of 

 Manua in holes, as in the case of the Seu-ta-peau (i.e. F. mcestissma). 

 The natives are very fond of them, and catch and consume great 

 numbers, hunting them with dogs. He gives the dimensions of the 

 specimen sent as follows. — Length ■12' 6 inches from the tip of the 

 bill to the tip of the tail ; bill 1-3 ; tail 3-3 ; middle and outer toe 

 1-8; inner toe 1*5 ; tarsus I'G (black on the outer side, bluish black 

 on the inner) ; expanse from tip to tip of wings 2 feet 2 inches. 



6. On the Use of the generic Name Gouldia in Zoology. 

 By W. H. Dall, Smithsonian Institution. 



[Received January 7, 1879.] 



Until within a ks^ days I have never been able to point to the 

 exact place where the late Prof. C. B. Adams described his genus 

 Gouldia ; and most foreign naturalists have supposed that its first 

 appearance was in Jay's Catalogue of Shells of January 1850. 

 According to Marschall's continuation of the 'Nomenclator Zoologicus,' 

 a genus Oouldia {Trochilidce) was proposed by " Ch. Bonaparte 

 in Paris Acad. 1850," while another authority places the date of 

 the description in 1849. On this account Mr.' Guppy of Trinidad, 

 W. I., proposed to substitute Crassinella for the molluscan Gouldia 

 of C. B. Adams. I believe this name has somewhere been used by 

 T. A. Conrad for some fossil allied to Astarte ; but I have not been 

 able to find the reference yet. It is, however, of no consequence, 

 since, even had Goiddia, C. B. Ad., been untenable, there are several 

 synonyms which are prior to Crassinella, Guppy, for that genus. 



I am glad to be able to state definitely, at last, the place of de- 

 scription and date of Gouldia, C. B. Ad., and to establish it on a 

 permanent footing, especially as the eminent naturalist from whom 

 it was named was one to whom I owe a lasting debt of gratitude 

 and affection for the almost paternal kindness with which he for- 

 warded my first attempts at tlie study of natural history. 



The story is most briefly told in a few paragraphs of synony- 

 mical references. 



Genus Gouldia, C. B. Adams. 



Thetis, C. B. Ad. 1845, Proc. Best. Soc. Nat. Hist. ii. p. 9 (Jan. 

 1845). Genus described, with two species, T. cerina and T. parva, 

 from Jamaica. Not Thetis^, J. Sowerby, Min. Conch, t. 513, 1826! 



Gouldia, C. B. Ad. (in) Cat. of Genera and Species of recent 



y* 



