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 apex- 

 fulva," 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 Vertebres ' 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 

 lie en fait des boucles d'oreille." 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 " II a ete rapporte 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 Perouse, and 

 that of the English under Vancouver. In 1820 the expedition under 

 De Freycinet returned from the Pacific. Ferussac 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 Ferussac 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- 

 bleau Systerhatique' 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 



