416 MELVILL AND STANDEN: SHELLS FROM LIFU. 
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 
In giving a history of the Hadfield Collections of the Mollusca 
of the Loyalty Islands, it is necessary just briefly to recapitulate 
what has been already said in the preefatial remarks to our first 
paper on the subject (av/ea pp. 84-132). 
It was in 1891-92, the Rev. James and Mrs. Hadfield — 
brought over a considerable assortment, mainly consisting of 
the larger and more showy species of marine mollusca. By 
cleaning out the mouths of some of the specimens, however, 
we discovered certain minute, but very beautiful, shells, some 
of them hitherto unknown; and this induced us to ask that 
further consignments of shell-sand might be forwarded. 
Very faithfully did our kind friends attend to our request, 
The next parcels arrived in 1893, to Messrs. W. Moss and 
R. Cairns, of Ashton-under-Lyne, whose coadjutorship and help 
have been invaluable to us throughout, and who placed every 
facility in our way for thoroughly examining this large mass 
of material. 
Whilst the first collection therefore contained mainly the 
more conspicuous forms, the next composed an assemblage 
of intermediate size, very rich indeed, as our lists show, in 
forms of certain attractive genera, e.g., Witra, Conus, Cyprea, 
Columbella, etc. ; but there were still comparatively few of the 
yet smaller grade we were so anxious to see, and which we were 
sure, if they could be procured, promised great results so far as 
novelty was concerned. 
We felt, however, that the time had come for a catalogue of 
these two consignments, and this was published in the present 
volume, pp. 84-132, in the summer of 1895 (July—Oct.). 
In this article, to which we would refer those who may be 
interested in the subject, we drew attention to the favoured 
geographical position of the Loyalty Islands, which are situated 
~J.C., viil., July, 1897 
