Manchester Memoirs^ Vol. xlii. (1898), No. 4. 



IV. Further investigations into the MoUuscan Fauna 

 of the Arabian Sea, Persian Gulf, and Gulf of Oman, 

 with descriptions of Forty species. 



(Mostly dredged by F. W. Townsend, Esq.) 



By James Cosmo Melvill, M.A., F.L.S. 



Received and read December i4^hy i8gy. 



Referring to my first paper* on this subject, read 

 exactly a year ago (December, 1896), before this Society, 

 I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Townsend in London 

 last summer, and of examining carefully with him 

 the whole of the material collected by him during the past 

 four years. He has now returned to India, and is 

 contemplating, if possible, seeking fresh areas for research 

 and for dredging purposes, and hopes to be able to sound 

 depths exceeding those compassed by him in former 

 expeditions. His last best results came from the Bahrein 

 Islands, and the southern shores and inlets of the Persian 

 Gulf From the neighbourhood of Bushire to the north, 

 and especially from the two islands Kais (or Gais) and 

 Sheikh Shuaib, some very prolific material was dredged. 



The principal novelties are, a most exquisite Ostrea, 

 perhaps the most delicately beautiful of the genus yet 

 discovered, a handsome Trochus, allied to T. radiatus^ 

 two new cones, one of these, C. saecularis^ we trust to 

 receive live examples of, and augur that, in perfect condi- 

 tion, it will hardly yield the palm for perfection of form 

 and graceful outline to any other species. Another Yoldia 

 has occurred, a wonderfully pure crystalline shell, a Drillia 



* Manchester Memoirs, Vol. xli., No. 7, 1897. 

 May lyth, i8g8. 



