154 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Dec. 17, 



the Crustacea. Its place in the strata is indicated by Dr. Wright's 

 section of the Lower Oolite of the Yorkshire coast *. It is rare, but 

 is found in most, if not all, of the plant-beds of the series, and bears 

 witness of their freshwater origin. 



11. Estheria Murchisonice, Jones, found by Sir H. I. Murchison 

 thirty-five years ago in the Isle of Skye, and then regarded as being 

 possibly a Tellina f . This is a delicate and beautiful Estheria, well 

 preserved, and probably a witness of freshwater conditions that ob- 

 tained during the Oxfordian period. The estuarine Jurassic fossils 

 from the Isle of Skye, described by Prof. E. Forbes %, belonging to 

 the same area, were found by him to underlie the Oxford Clay §. 



Since completing the ' Monograph of Fossil Estheriae ' for the 

 Palaeontographical Society, I have seen Dr. Baird's figures and de- 

 scription || of the recent Estheria Jonesi, from Cuba, and in G. West's 

 beautiful illustrations of the ornamentation of this species we may 

 see a near approach to that of E. Murchisonice, and in the shape of 

 the carapace a close resemblance to that of E. concentrica. 



12. Estheria elliptica, Dunker, was the first fossil rightly and clearly 

 referred to Estheria. Of some it had been suggested that they might 

 be bivalved crustaceans ; and Mr. Bean and others had definitely 

 given to some that have since proved to be Estherim the term 

 "Cypris;" but Dr. W. Dunker (in 1843) was the first palaeontologist 

 who recognized and described a fossil Estheria. 



E. elliptica is abundant in the Cyrena-shales of the Wealden of 

 Hanover, where it presents two forms, the larger one elliptical or sub- 

 ovate in outline, the other nearly oblong or subquadrate ; the latter 

 variety Dr. Dunker described as E. subquadrata in 1843. Mr. J. de 

 C. Sowerby in 1836 had given the name Cyclas subquadrata to a little 

 Estheria found near St. Leonard's by Dr. Eitton^f. This was found in 

 abundance at Bulverhithe (the same locality) by Prof. Morris and 

 myself a few years since (without our having recognized Dr. Eitton's 

 locality, and Sowerby's notice and figures), and I have no doubt of its 

 being the same as Dunker's C. subquadrata. This has also been found 

 by Fitton, Binfield, Beckles, Baily, and ourselves in the East Cliff, 

 Hastings, and near Tunbridge Wells by Dr. Mantell ; but the large 

 and typical E. elliptica has not yet been recognized in England. 



Cypridm (Cypridea Valdensis, &c.), Cyrena, Paludina, and Plant- 

 remains are the associates of the Wealden Esiheriaz, both in Sussex 

 and Hanover ; and these indicate only fresh, or, at the most, bracks 

 ish water as the habitat of E. elliptica and its variety. 



Obscure remains of Estheria have also been observed by Dunker 



* Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xvi. p. 31. f Greol. Trans. 2 ser. vol. ii. p. 311. 



\ Quart. Journ. Greol. Soc. vol. vii. p. 104. 



§ Some years since, the late Dr. Mantell gave me a hand-specimen of Oxford 

 Clay, from Wilts (probably from the railway-cutting near Trowbridge, Quart. 

 Journ. Greol. Soc. vol. vi. p. 312), in which a Cyprid, extremely like Cyprideis 

 unicornis of the Upper Eocene freshwater beds of Hempstead Cliff, Isle of 

 Wight, occurs in abundance. This may indicate lacustrine or estuarine con- 

 ditions of some portion of the Oxfordian group in the South of England. 



|| Proc. Zool. Soc. 1862, p. 147, pi. 15. figs. 1-ld. 



f Greol. Trans. 2nd ser. vol. iv. part 2. p. 177, and p. 345, pi. 21. fig. 8, 



