JUKES-BROWNE : ON SOME QUESTIONS OP NOMENCLATURE. I03 



would be to stultify Scopoli's own work, when we desire to honour him 

 by adopting his name in recognition of the fact that he was the first 

 to separate certain shells from the Linnsean assemblage of Mytilus. 

 Common sense will surely tell us that we have no right to use any 

 name in a manner which would reverse the obvious intention of the 

 author in establishing the group it represents. 



There is another consideration which leads to the same conclu- 

 sion. Scopoli's genus Volsella is clearly a composite one, for it 

 includes shells with three different types of hinge, so different that at 

 the present day they would probably be regarded as belonging to 

 different genera. One of these shells was afterwards taken by 

 Lamarck as the type of his new genus Modiolus^ and no rule is broken 

 by the acceptance of Lamarck's name for this genus, because other 

 species are left to represent Scopoli's genus. It is, therefore, the 

 Gula soricis of Lister or the Mytilus Vaber of Adanson, which should 

 be taken as the type of the genus Volsella. I have examined the 

 second edition of Lister's "Historiae Conchyliorum," but am unable to 

 find any shell bearing the extraordinary name of '•'•Gula soricis^'' nor 

 anything tliat Scopoli could have taken for that name. As regards 

 the Mytilus Vaber of Adanson, his figure is so bad that it may be 

 called unrecognisable. Consequently, it seems to me that Scopoli's 

 genus Volsella does not include anything that can be taken as a type 

 and that the name should be dropped altogether. On this question I 

 am pleased to find myself once again in accord with Dr. Dall (see 

 op, cit., p. 786), but I know that certain authorities in this country 

 persist in taking the opposite view. There is, therefore, need for an 

 authoritative settlement of the matter. 



From the instances above given I think I have shown how pressing 

 is the need for the discussion of these questions of nomenclature by 

 some duly qualified body. I see no reason why conchologists should 

 wait till other zoologists begin to move. The Conchological and 

 Malacological Societies could appoint a British Committee, and the 

 very formation of such a committee would probably lead to the 

 appointment of others in America, France, and Germany. Each 

 might draw up a report of its own conclusions, and then arrange for 

 a conference to discuss the points on which they differ. 



Testacella scutulum in Worcestershire. — On the morning of the 28th of 

 March, whilst walking along Middleton Hall Road, King's Norton, Worcester- 

 shire, I was delighted to find a fine specimen of Testacella scuUdum crawling along 

 the gravelled footpath. The body is of a yellowish buff colour. Also on the 30th 

 I found a much smaller specimen of the var. albina, and on April i6th I found 

 three more specimens like the first one. — J. Madison {Read before the Society, 

 June 8th, 1904). 



