6-2 DALL : CIRCE VCVSUS GOULDIA. 



one there would be room for another name; if there was 

 nothing new Gouldia would become a synonym. Now Gouldia 

 has been in continuous use and familiarity with American 

 students at least (and also many foreign ones) from the time it 

 was proposed up to this hour. Carpenter had pointed out that 

 part of the shells which had been described (after the first two, 

 as well as one of those) were little crassatellas and must be 

 eliminated. He also shewed that "■ Circe" minima belonged 

 with the typical Gouldia cerina. But no one else meddled 

 with the subject until Mr. E. A. Smith began to study it. 

 Everybody on this side of the water had continued to confound 

 the two kinds under the old and familiar name because no one 

 had occasion to look into the matter particularly. But the 

 name Gouldia had been called in question on other grounds, 

 namely that there was a genus of birds of similar title described 

 before that of Prof Adams. The original place where Gouldia 

 C. B. Adams was described had been forgotten (it was in an 

 obscure pamphlet) and none of the nomenclators stated it 

 rightly. It happened that I came across the name and took 

 the opportunity of recording a fact about which enquiries had 

 been made by several naturalists and thus put Gouldia Adams 

 on a firm basis as regards its antagonism with the ornithic 

 Gouldia, which I showed to be of later date. 



Now it happens that after Gouldia Adams had been pro- 

 posed and published and come into use Morch proposed Lio- 

 concha (without any limitation or diagnosis) in an auctioneer's 

 catalogue of a shell collection. The group which we may 

 suppose him to have had in view, from the species to which he 

 attached the name, consists apparently of nothing but large 

 Gouldias which had stupidly been included with Circe up to 

 that time. No one, so far as I know, has doubted the propriety 

 of separating these shells by name from Circe, but we must 

 await a satisfactory description of the soft parts before the 

 exact relations of Circe can be decided, or the relative value 

 and nearest connections of either be determined finally. Now 



J.C, iv., April, 1883 



