4 MR. W. H. PEASE ON TWO NEW HELICTERES. [Jan. 14, 
each of these officers published a narrative of his voyage, in London, 
1789, in a separate volume. 
The latter purchased from the natives at Oahu a necklace made of 
the H. lugubris. In an appendix to his narrative he gives de- 
scriptions of several objects of natural history collected in the Pa- 
cific, including the above species, under the name of “ Helix apez- 
JSulva,” illustrated by a good figure. In the year 1795 Chemnitz 
closed his great work with descriptions of a number of new species 
of shells from the Pacific, many of which had been lately purchased 
by Spengler (whose collection was considered the largest in Europe, 
and afforded Chemnitz many rare species) from a dealer in London. 
They included the shell described by Capt. Dixon; and, without much 
doubt, the specimens were from the necklace brought home by him. 
Chemnitz named it “ Turbo lugubris.” It is the oldest recognized 
species of the genus. In 1801 Lamarck described the same species 
in his ‘ Animaux sans Vertébres’ as ‘‘Monodonta seminigra,” having 
also purchased specimens from a dealer in London. He was misin- 
formed as to the locality (Tahiti), and adds that ‘“ La reine de cette 
ile en fait des boucles doreille.”” The dealer might have supposed 
that he would enhance their value by representing them as having 
ornamented a queen ; he received two guineas for them. Delessert 
figures the specimen from Lamarck’s collection on plate 37. fig. 2, 
and, quoting the locality from Lamarck, adds “Il a été rapporté par 
le capitaine Cook,” also an error. Up to this date but one species 
was known. The several specimens described and figured can all 
be traced without much doubt to Capt. Dixon’s necklace, which, 
having been purchased for a nail at Oahu, was sold (at the rate of 
those purchased by Spengler and the Paris Museum) for several 
hundred dollars in Europe. 
Twenty years passed by before any other specimens found their 
way to Europe, although in the meantime the islands became the 
winter resort of the fur-traders from the north-west coast of America, 
and were visited by the French Expedition under La Pérouse, and 
that of the English under Vancouver. In 1820 the expedition under 
De Freycinet returned from the Pacific. Férussac having com- 
menced that year the publication of his great work on land-shells, 
all the species collected by Quoy and Gaimard during their voyage 
were passed over into his hands for examination and description. 
Eight species appeared in a ‘ Prodrome’ published by Férussac in 
1821, their generic character being well and accurately defined, under 
the name of Helicter, and were placed by him in his system under 
a subdivision (Cochlogena) of the Helices, it having been reported to 
him that the animal was similar to those of that family. The genus 
must therefore date 1821, not 1819, as noted by Drs. Gray and 
Herrmannsen. The copy of the ‘ Prodrome’ in our library has no 
date on its title-page ; but we find at the commencement of the ‘Ta- 
bieau Systématique’ the date 1821, June, which we adopt, and which 
is probably correct, as the expedition from which his specimens were 
obtained did not reach Europe until 1820. Three years later, 1824, 
the ‘ Zoology of the Voyage of De Freycinet’ was published, in which 
