Mollusks. 4301 



desire that others may know some of the zoological rarities and trea- 

 sures " the Province" possesses, — and a conviction that these lists 

 will be of interest, if not of use hereafter, when the subjects they refer 

 to will engage more than they now do of the recreative hours of all 

 classes of society. 



This list indeed may be looked upon as among the first-fruits of 

 ' The History of British Mollusca,' by Messrs. Forbes and Hanley ; 

 for assuredly without the assistance found in this new and incom- 

 parable work, any attempt to discriminate and enumerate the Mol- 

 lusca of Moray would not at present have been made, or, if made, it 

 must have fallen far short of the point of success it has now reached. 

 The order and scientific nomenclature, adopted by the authors of 

 ' The History,' are here implicitly followed ; but, as this splendid and 

 valuable work has not yet reached the wide circulation which its 

 merits will obtain for it, synonymes are taken from Dr. Fleming's 

 1 British Animals,' and Professor Macgillivray's ' Aberdeenshire Mol- 

 lusca,' which have been deservedly valued, and hitherto consulted and 

 followed by most zoological observers in the North of Scotland. 

 Most of the English names here given are extracted from the ' Aber- 

 deenshire Mollusca,' a few others are but translations of the Linnean 

 terms. The names of the discoverers of the rarer species have been 

 carefully recorded, as far as known ; and the frequent recurrence of 

 some names will show that much credit is due and much success has 

 attended their researches in this branch of Natural History. The 

 labours and success of Mr. George Murray, Free Church School- 

 master, at Burghead, deserve especial notice. The discoverer in this 

 district of many species among the other tribes, he has filled up 

 a void which, without his assistance, would have occurred among the 

 Nudibranchiatae, and which must have left this list but a very im- 

 perfect record of those species of the beautiful tribe that inhabit the 

 waters of the Moray Firth. In proof of the value and extent of Mr. 

 Murray's discoveries, the following extract is given from a letter to 

 him from Mr. Hancock, one of the accomplished authors of ' The 

 Monograph of British Nudibranchiate Mollusca:' — "I was very glad 

 to receive a list of the Nudibranchs of your coast, as we are prepar- 

 ing for the concluding part of the Monograph, and it will help us to 

 more correct views respecting the distribution of those hitherto much 

 neglected, though highly interesting and beautiful animals. From 

 the length of the list, it is evident that you must have searched dili- 

 gently the last two years, and that your coast is richly supplied with 

 species." 



XII. X 



