1906.] MOLLUSKS FROM THE PEKSIAX GULF. 785 



There can, of course, be no doubt that the.se 310 .specie.s also 

 inhabit the intermediate sea.s, as yet, unfoitunately, but little 

 explored, between Aden and Eas-el-Had, that wa.sh the coasts of 

 the Hadramaut, Dhofar, &c. It is much, to be hoped that some 

 investigator may soon turn his attention to this neglected area. 



Cdijlcjii. 

 With regard to Ceylon, comparison seems impo.ssible at present, 

 as we do not possess i-ecent catalogues of the productions of the 

 seas and shores of that proverbially rich island. The enumeration, 

 compiled, A^'e believe, by the late Mr. Sylvanus Hanley with the 

 aid of Mr. E. L. Layard, C.M.G., and published in the treatise on 

 Ceylon by 8ir J. Emerson Tennant *, is altogether out of date, as 

 also are the .slight additions made by the late Mr. A. W. Langdon to 

 the ]\[ollusca fauna H". The researches of the late Messrs. Hugh and 

 Geoffrey Xevill, of ]VIr. J. R. Henderson and ls\v. Edgar Thurston. 

 C.M.Z.S., in the Gulf of Manaari, and the cur.sor}' dredgings oft' 

 Batticaloa and Humbantotte by Captain W. A. Tindall, all tend, 

 in some small measure, to reveal what a superlatively productive 

 region, conchologically speaking, is that of Ceylon. We may add, 

 that the scientific appendices to the Pearl-Oyster Fi-sher}" Repoi-ts 

 brought out by Professor W. A. Herdman, F.R.S., have likewise 

 added to our knowledge of this fauna, as regai^ls Cfiplialopoda 

 (Dr. W. E. Hoyle), Poh/plaxophora (Mr. E. E,. 8ykes), and Opjisiho- 

 hranchiata (Mr. G. P. Farran), while the Gastropoda and Pele- 

 cypoda are being reported upon by one of us (E,. tStanden) in 

 conjunction with Mr. Alfred Leicester. 



MaMive and, LaccadAve Islands. 

 Mr. Edgar iSmitli enumei-ated .380 species § as occurring in 

 these islands, collected by the Stanley Gardiner Expedition, 

 remarking that " this probably comprises a large pioportion of 

 the forms which occur." Only 49 of these are noted by liim, in 

 the tabular li.st of distribution, as occurring in the Persian Gulf. 

 We notice, however, that Conns maldivus L. is not included, the 

 name of -which would incline us to the belief it had fir-st been 

 detected in the Maldives. Pecten maldivensis Sm., has also been 

 found to occur in the Gulf ; and no doubt the number of species 

 common to both regions will be found much laiger, with more 

 detailed research. In the Pelecypoda for instance, Semipecten 

 forhesianus, Septifer hiloctdaris, Area irnhricata^ CardAurn sueziense, 

 C . fornicatum, Venus rnarica, &.C., all occur- in both. 



Referring, cursorily, to the brief resume given in our first 

 paper ^ on the distribution of the chief genera of Gastropoda in the 



* ' Ceylon/ vol. i. pp. 233-243 (2nd edition, 1859). 

 t •loum. of Concb. i. p. 71 (1874). 



X Bull. Mus. Madras, Xo. 3 (1895) ; Journ. of Conch, is. pp. .30, 75. 

 § ' The Fauna and Geo^aphy of the ilaldive and Laccadive Archipelagoes.' vol. ii. 

 pp. 589-630, pis. XXXV. & xxxvi. (1903). 

 II P. Z.S. 1901 (vol. ii.), pp. 330, 331. 



