MELVILL AND STANDEN: SHELLS FROM LIFU. 417 
due east of the large island of New Caledonia, and not very far 
within the tropics, namely long. 168° E. lat. 22° S. 
They occupy a very central position in the great Indo- 
Pacific province, if we may still be allowed to consider Australia 
a portion of that region. They belong to France, and to 
French conchologists, notably MM. Crosse, Fischer, Souverbie, 
Gassies, Lambert, Montrouzier, and now Hervier, we are in- 
debted for our knowledge of their mollusca, M. Crosse, for 
instance, has only lately (Journ. de Conch., vol. xliii.) con- 
cluded his exhaustive list of the terrestrial mollusca of the New 
Caledonian region; but, so far as we could gather, no cata- 
logue existed of the marine mollusca of the Loyalty Islands, 
which include the three islands of Lifu, Maré, and Uvea. This 
led to our publishing a list, as complete as we could make it, 
consisting o7/y of those species found in the Hadfield collec- 
tions, which number nearly 630 species. We now regret 
having mentioned the terrestrial mollusca, which were insig- 
nificant in number, and of no novelty; but it was far other- 
wise as regarded the marine portion, more particularly the 
Gastropoda. 
In this enumeration twenty-one new species were described, 
in one or two cases from single or but two or three specimens. 
It is very gratifying, therefore, to be able to say, now that the 
third consignment has been thoroughly examined and over- 
hauled, that some of the species are represented. in considerable 
numbers, €.8 Minolia glaphyrella, many ; Mitra nitidissima, 
many, including a crimson-red variety, the normal form being | 
pitchy shining black ; Mangilia theskela, a great number; Murex 
(Ocinebra) benedictus, twenty specimens ; but on the other hand 
it is curious that Diala Hardyi, of which there are many in the 
former collections, is entirely absent from this assortment. 
This third consignment was forwarded to Mr. R. D. 
Darbishire, early in 1896, and consisted of a large packing- 
case, filled with partly-sifted shell-sand. | When treated to 
further sorting through a sieve, the richness of the material 
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