506 



DESCRIPTIONS OF NEW SPECIES OF MARINE SHELLS 

 FROM BOMBAY. 



By J. Cosmo Melvill, m.a., p.l.s., &c. 



{With a plate.') 



In November, 1892, GOhjointly with Mr. Alexander Abercrombie, of Bombay, 

 I published (1) a Catalogue of about 320 species of marine Mollusca that 

 had been collected by the latter gentleman during three successive seasons on 

 the shores of this favoured, specialized, and little explored centre. Special- 

 ized, Bombay is certainly proved to be in this particular, since many showy 

 species would seem to have made her coasts their head-quarters ; and, besides, 

 in the Catalogue just referred to, no less than twenty-five were signalized as 

 novelties, many belonging to the more attractive genera, e.g., Purpera, Murex, 

 Tellina, and Rceta. At the same time a few of the Minutiora were 

 described and figured, and a far larger number set aside for future investiga- 

 tion. These have received welcome additions by an assortment of two fur- 

 ther boxes of shell shingle, kindly forwarded a year ago by Mr. Abercrombie, 

 which, while yielding further specimens of nearly all the smaller species first 

 enumerated, likewise provided fresh material in the way of many novelties. 



The molluscan fauna of Bombay being, as already observed, well differen- 

 tiated and specialized, it is rendered a simpler task than might be thought to 

 discriminate such forms as are now to be described. No dredgings, 

 scientifically made, have been carried out hero — indeed, I am informed, the 

 configuration of these coasts is not satisfactory for the purpose— and no col- 

 lections of the smaller species, excepting a few by the Rev. Mr. Fairbank, of 

 Bombay, and Messrs. H. F. and W. T. Blanford, had been made, when a few 

 species, e. g., Irawadia trochlearis, Blanf ., and Fairbankia bombayana, Blanf ., 

 were described. Mr. Geoffrey Nevill subsequently discovered a few, mainly 

 Pleurotomidce, and it is regrettable that his types are all in the Calcutta 

 Museum and therefore inaccessible to most British conchologists. Some, 

 however, have been figured in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. 



The Ceylon fauna and that of Karachi, the latter now being assiduously 

 explored by Mr. F. W. Townsend, differ widely from that of Bombay, though 

 of course a few species are common to two or all three of the localities. We 

 cannot think that, numerically, the Bombay list will exceed 500 species (exclu- 

 sive of brackish-water forms such as Neritina, Fotamides, &c.~) ; and the publi- 

 cation of the following twenty-six new forms, mainly belonging to the families 

 Solariida, Scalariidce, Pyramidellidce, and Cerithiidce, will swell up the total of 

 those catalogued to 350 species. 



I would tender my best thanks, not only to Mr. Abercrombie, for providing 

 the material of which this paper is the outcome, but also to Mr. E. A. Smith, 

 and Mr. E. R. Sykes, for aid and advice. It is my intention to offer to place 



(1). Cf. Memoirs Manchester Lit. and Phil. Soc, series IV, vol. vii, pp. 17-61. 



