26 CARBONIFEROUS CEPHALOPODA OF IRELAND. 



Remarks. — I have not refigured the type specimen because it is almost entirely 

 denuded of the test, owing to which circumstance M'Coy overlooked the striations 

 upon its surface ; these are, however, actually preserved upon a fragment of the 

 test to which my attention was drawn by my friend Mr. G. C. Crick, of the British 

 Museum. But for this fortunate discovery it would not have been possible to 

 identify M'Coy's species with any other form without much uncertainty. Owing 

 to M'Coy's 0. distans being preoccupied by J. de Carle Sowerby (in Murchison's 

 " Silurian System," p. 619, pi. viii, fig. 17), I was compelled to re-name the 

 present species when describing it in the ' Catal. Foss. Cephal. British Museum ' 

 (1888, pt. 1, p. 20). 



Locality. — Little Island, near Cork. 



[Orthoceras cinctum, J. de Carle Sowerby. Min. Conch., vol. vi, 1829, p. 168, 



pi. dlxxxviii, fig. 3. 



Orthoceras cinotum, A. H. Foord, 1896. TJeber die Orthoceren des Kuhleu- 



kalks (Carboniferous Limestone) von 

 Irland. . . . Inaugural-Dissertation 

 zur Erlaugung der Doktorwiirde . 

 der Kgl. bayer. Ludwig-Maximilians- 

 Universitiit zu Miiucben, p. 37. 



The original of this species, which should be in the " Sowerby Collection " in 

 the British Museum, has been lost, and there is therefore only the author's brief 

 description and accompanying figure by which to identify it. Sowerby's descrip- 

 tion is as follows : " Shell nearly cylindrical, surface ornamented with numerous 

 sharp, annular striae ; siphon central. In this species the septa are rather more 

 concave than is usual, and also distant. The transversely striated surface is 

 what it is best distinguished by, and seems to indicate a shell formed outside the 

 animal. I have seen but one specimen Near Preston, Lancashire." 



The short description given by Sowerby, and the sketchy character of his 

 figure, make any attempt to identify 0. cinctum with actual specimens a very 

 risky matter, considering that several species ornamented with striee of different 

 kinds can now be identified from England, Scotland, Ireland, and Belgium. 



The appearance, therefore, of the name " Orthoceras cinctum " in lists of fossils 

 cannot be taken as in any way authoritative for the occurrence of Sowerby's 

 species in the particular locality indicated, since we are ignorant as to what that 

 species is. Caution in this case is all the more necessary since it was not formerly 

 the practice to examine minutely into the character of the ornamentation upon 



