BY C. HEDLEY. 461 



Ficus communis Bolten. 



Ficus communis Bolten, Mus. Bolt. (2), 1798, p. 148. 



Considerable confusion has attended this genus. For Hanley* 

 has shown that Linne confounded three species in the original 

 Bulla ficus ; while Smithf has discussed the obscurity of the 

 Lamarckian species. By reviving the neglected name of BoltenJ 

 we gain not only by restoring the oldest name, but by avoiding 

 the dispute of whether the subsequent name of Lamarck was 

 bestowed on the Australian or the American shell. 



Angas recorded this species as Sycotypus reticulatus§ from the 

 mouth of the Macleay River. It has subsequently been taken as 

 far south as Port Stephens. Along the Queensland coast it is not 

 rare on sandy beaches. I dredged a fragment off the Hope 

 Islands near Cooktown. 



Under the name of Sycotypus ficoides, Brazier notes it|| from 

 15-30 fathoms off Darnley Island, where, so Jukes writes, U the 

 natives call it " mabaer." 



West of Torres Strait this species is replaced by F. tessellatus 

 Kobelt. 



In the Australian Tertiary the genus is represented by F. 

 altispira Pritchard,WI from Table Cape, Tasmania. This seems 

 additional evidence that the temperature there was then higher 

 than now. 



Mitra carbonaria Swainson. 



Swainson, Bligh Cat. Append, p.10, 1822 (reprinted Exotic 

 Conchology, 1841, p. 37). Mitra melaniana Swainson (not 

 Lamarck), Zool. Illustr. 2nd Ser., iii. 1832, Mitra, Pl.i. f.l. 



In 1788 Chemnitz published, under a polynomial name, figures 

 and description of a Mitra from the incongruous localities of the 

 Guinea coast, Greenland and Tranquebar. Probably he had 



* Hanley, Ips. Linn. Conch. 1855, p. 206. 



t Smith. Journ. of Malac. iii. 1S94, p. 66. 



% Founded on Knorr, Verg. Pt.iii. Pl.xxiii. f.l. 



§ Angas, Proc. Zool. Hoc. 1877, p. 182. 



|| Brazier, these Proceedings, i. 1877, p. 235. 



IT Jukes, Voy. " Fly," i. 1847, p.189; ii. p.286. 



1HI Pritchard, Proc. Eoy. Soc. Vict. viii. n.s. 1896, p.85, PI. iii. f.2-3. 



