1871.] MR. T. DAVIDSON ON JAPANESE BRACHIOPODA. 309 



come under my notice. It measured 8 lines in length by 7 in width 

 and 4 in depth. 



Hab. Gotto, 48 fathoms. 



Family Rhynchonellid.e, J. E. Gray. 



Genus Rhynchonella, Fischer de Waldheim. 



The recent forms are few in number. Rh. psittacea, Gmelin,= 

 var. woodwardi, Adams (?). Rh. nigricans, Sow., Rh. graxji, Wood. 

 ward, Rh. lucida, Gould, and Rh. sicula, Sequenza, MS., are all the 

 species with which we are at present acquainted. 



Rhynchonella psittacea, Gmelin, var. woodwardi, A. 

 Adams. (Plate XXXI. fig. 12.) 



Rh. woodwardi, A. Adams, Annals & Mag. of Nat. Hist. 3rd ser. 

 vol.xi. p. 100, 1863. 



M. Adams states in his paper that "this species differs from Rh. 

 psittacea in being concentrically striolate instead of radiately grooved; 

 the beak, moreover, is smaller and less curved ; the form is more 

 broadly triangular, and the ventral margin rounded and produced in 

 the middle. The young possess the same characters seen in the 

 adult. Hab. Gotto, 48 fathoms ; also off Rifunsiri Island, 4 miles 

 from the shore, in 35 fathoms, from a bottom of coral, broken shells, 

 and stones." 



I have been able to examine two examples of this shell, and could 

 distinctly perceive faintly marked radiating striae, similar to those 

 that cover the surface of R. psittacea. I cannot help thinking, and 

 I am confirmed in this opinion by Mr. Jeffreys, that the R. wood- 

 wardi of Adams is no more than a local variety of R. psittacea. 

 The colour of the two specimens obtained by Mr. Adams are of a 

 less bluish tint than we find usually in the shell last named ; but 

 some examples of R. psittacea from the northern European seas have 

 also assumed that colour. 



Rhynchonella lucida, Gould. (Plate XXXI. figs. 13, 14.) 



Rh. lucida, Gould, Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist. p. 323, 1860, and 

 Otia Conch, p. 121 ; Adams, Annals and Mag. of Nat. Hist. 3rd 

 ser. vol. xi. p. 100, 1863. 



Shell small, obtusely subrhomboidal or ovate, rather longer than 

 wide ; dorsal valve convex, almost gibbous ; mesial fold wide, com- 

 mencing to rise at about half the length of the valve. Ventral valve 

 rather less convex or deep than the opposite one, and scooped out 

 near the front in the form of a deepish sinus ; beak acute, sharply 

 incurved ; foramen beueath the extremity of the beak, completed by 

 a deltidium. Surface smooth, of a light whitish glassy grey ; shell- 

 structure fibrous. Length 6, width 5, depth 3 lines. 



This very interesting species had never been completely described 

 or illustrated. It was briefly noticed by Gould in 1860; but his 

 observation that it might be taken for a small T. vitrea is quite in- 



