1863.] DR. p. p. CARPENTER ON THE SHELLS OF PANAMA. 33!) 



By a comparison of these three lists, it will be seen that China, so 

 far as it is yet explored, presents an advantage in land-birds of 11 5 

 species over Amoorland, and of 1 1 1 species over Japan. But much 

 remains yet to be done in all three countries. The ornithology 

 of China proper may perhaps with propriety be classed under two 

 regions, palsearctic and semitropical, — the former comprising the 

 country north of the Yangtsze, and the latter the land south of this 

 river. Of the European forms of /anc?-birds that range the Chinese 

 coast, a few are identical with those of the West ; but the majority 

 have sufficiently changed in characters to be classed in some cases as 

 varieties, in others as species. The Indian birds that occur in China 

 are, with a very few exceptions, summer visitants. The migrations 

 of many of the species deserve special notice. But large as my data 

 are, as compared with former investigations, I think they are scarcely 

 sufficient to enable me to draw statistical conclusions of any value. 

 As I am shortly about to return to China, and hope to have further 

 opportunities for verifying my observations, I will not now commit 

 myself by making any general remarks which future research may 

 compel me to retract. I therefore leave the scientific reader, after 

 the perusal of the lists and the notes given with each species, to 

 draw his own general inferences and come to his own conclusions. 



9. Review of Prof. C. B. Adams's * Catalogue of the Shells 

 OF Panama'*, from the Type Specimens. By Philip P. 

 Carpenter, B.A., Ph.D. 



A resume of this important contribution to our knowledge of local 

 faunas, and a comparison with the British Museum ' Descriptive 

 Catalogue of the Reigen Collection of Mazatlan Mollusca,' is given 

 in the 'Report of the British Association' for 18.50, pp. 265-281. 

 Full series of the old species, and the first specimens of the new, 

 were deposited by Prof. Adams in the Museum of Amherst College, 

 which also contains similar series of the Professor's Caribbean col- 

 lections. The second specimens of new species were sent to Mr. 

 Cuming, and through his kindness were freely used in preparing 

 the Mazatlan Catalogue, thus avoiding the necessity of many syno- 

 nyms. An instructive lesson in candour and forbearance may be 

 learnt by comparing together the works of any two naturalists of 

 equal celebrity, or by comparing either of them with the types. 

 With the best desires for accuracy, and the greatest care, it is hardly 

 possible for an author to describe so that his readers shall see shells 

 as he sees them. If this be true of such full and precise diagnoses 

 as those of Adams and Gould, how much greater must be the diffi- 

 culty to foreigners of recognizing shells from the brief descriptions 

 of Broderip, Lamarck, and the older writers generally. The careful 



* Catalogue of Shells collected at Panama ; ■with Notes on their Synonymy, 

 Station, and Geographical Distribution : by C. B. Adams, Professor of Zoology, 

 &c., in Amherst College, Mass. Reprinted from the ' Annals of Lyceum of Nat. 

 Hist. N. Y.,' vol. V. New York, 1852. 



