16$ Transactions. — Zoology. 



Art. XXII. — Descrijjtion of two little-known Slides of New Zealand Shells. 



By W. CoLENSo, F.L.S. 



[Read before the HaivJce's Bay Philosophical Listitute, lith November, 1881.] 



Although just forty years have passed since I first detected and made 

 known these two shells, one marine and one fresh-water, which I now bring 

 before you, I have good reasons for believing they are still but little known. 

 Their scientific description, etc., was early published in the " Tasmanian 

 Journal of Natural Science,"* but I do not find them noticed in any of the 

 modern conchological works in our library, under my own or any other 

 specific names ; neither are they included in the exhaustive "List of New 

 Zealand Mollusca," recently laboriously compiled from almost all concho- 

 logical authorities by Professor Hutton, and published last year by the 

 New Zealand Government. I therefore conclude that they are still but 

 little known. This, however, may be easily accounted for, if, as I suppose, 

 the single localities in which I separately found them are their only known 

 habitats ; as such are quite out of the way of both the scientific and general 

 traveller ; and although I sought them diligently in my early and general 

 collecting of the shells of this country, I never met with these species any- 

 where else. At the time, however, of their discovery, I distributed several 

 specimens to various parts of the world. 



You will not fail to note, in examining the specimens before you, how 

 exceedingly well they have kept both their original colours and freshness of 

 epidermis, more resembling specimens newly obtained, than those of forty 

 years slumbering in a cabinet. In again giving their scientific description, 

 I shall, on account of conformity, confine myself to the terms I used in the 

 original drawing up, although at that very early period without scientific 

 books. 



Genus Patella. 



Patella solandri : Shell oval, anteriorly truncated, much depressed, 

 faintly striated longitudinally, diaphanous, fragile, covered with a thin 

 epidermis ; inside, smooth, glossy ; vertex, very much anteriorly inclined, 

 sub-acute, produced, slightly recurved ; margin, entu'e, obsoletely crenulated 

 within ; colour, bluish green, concentrically streaked with brown, beautifully 

 blotched, or tortuously undulated, with same colour towards margin ; 5-7 

 lines long, 4-5 lines broad. 



Hab. Adhering to the underside of large smooth stones ; Tokomaru 

 (Tegadoo) Bay, East Coast, North Island of New Zealand. 



* Discovered in December, 1841, and published in " Tasmanian Journal of Natural 

 Science," vol. ii., pp. 226, 250. 



