1870.] MR. R. B. SHARPE ON THE GENUS PELARGOPSIS. 61 
work mentioned above), under the name of Proto maraschinii, we find 
it represented as having the mouth perfectly round, and no appear- 
ance is shown of the slit or incision in the lower lip; neither is there 
any mention made of this character in his description. The genus 
Proto is defined by him as a shell having “a round mouth formed 
by the reunion of the left lip, which, passing circularly to that of the 
right side, terminates higher up towards the middle of the last whorl.” 
It is also described as having the lower part of each whorl with a 
raised band round it, as in many of the species of the genus Terebra. 
The Proto maraschinii is said by him to be recent. The other spe- 
cies which have been referred to this genus are apparently quite 
different, both in the mouth and the body of the shell, and must be 
separated from it. They may possibly enter as species into the 
genus which I have now formed; and it is somewhat remarkable, if 
so, that no recent species have hitherto been found. However this 
may be, the name Proto having been previously used by Leach for a 
crustacean, and since then adopted by several carcinologists, must 
stand ; and it has the precedence of Defrance’s name by ten years. 
In the same collection of shells made by Captain Knocker two or 
three specimens of a turritelliform shell occur, which agree in shape 
and size (about 9 lines long) with the Proto maraschinii as figured 
by Defrance. They are, however, so worn and rubbed, that it is 
impossible to ascertain exactly their identity. 
I may also remark that a species of shell, Cardita ajar, occurring 
in the same collection (from the Bight of Benin) is likewise found 
fossil in the Miocene formation in Europe. 
4, On the Genus Pelargopsis, Gloger. 
By R. B. Suarpe. 
In pursuance of the plan I before proposed to myself, of laying 
before the Society short synopses of the various genera of Kingfishers 
which are more or less obscure, I have now the pleasure of submit- 
ting a review of the genus Pelargopsis, or Stork-billed Kingfishers. 
By most authors these Kingfishers have been included in the genus 
Halcyon ; but in my opinion they are more closely allied to Ceryle, 
to the larger members of which latter genus they bear unmistakable 
affinity. There is probably no group in the whole family of the 
** Alcedinidz ” which is involved in greater confusion than the pre- 
sent genus, consequent, apparently, on the close affinity of one spe- 
cies to another, and on the refusal of ornithologists to grant specific 
rank to the various well-characterized races of the brown-capped 
section of the genus, and likewise from the wrong identifications of 
the species of the older authors. I have endeavoured in the present 
paper to dispel the existing confusion ; and by treating the various 
so-called “‘races” as good species, which, in my humble opinion, 
they decidedly constitute, a much clearer idea of the genus Pelar- 
gopsis may be arrived at. * 
