BY C. HEDLEY. 465 



Cantharidus eximius Perry. 



Bulimus eximius Perry, Conchology, 1811, P1.32, f.2. 



For this shell Perry simultaneously proposed the names of 

 Bulimus carinatus and B. eximius. Tt is interesting to note that 

 Ferussac* suggested that B. carinatus Perry appeared to be not 

 a land- but a sea-shell. 



On the ground that B. carinatus had page precedence, not 

 priority, over its fellow, Messrs. Pritchard & Gatliff have selected! 

 it for service, thus leading Dr. Vercoj astray also. But Pilsbry 

 has explained§ that B. carinatus Perry cannot stand on account 

 of the earlier Bulimus carinatus Bruguiere, 1789. 



Dr. Bartsch kindly forwarded a photograph of Gould's type of 

 Elenchus ocellatus,\\ collected by W. Stimpson in Sydney Harbour. 

 This enables me to identify it as a young C. eximius. The white 

 dashes, to which the trivial name refers, commonly occur on 

 Sydney examples. 



This shell is shown in an aboriginal Tasmanian necklace in the 

 Atlas to Peron's ' Voyage ' (1824, Pl.xii. f. 5). Such necklaces 

 are also described by Ling Roth.^I Modern local jewellers now 

 employ it for various forms of trinkets. The Rev. T. Dove wrote** 

 "a cluster of glistening shells was termed a merrina." Tasmanian 

 fishermen, so I am told by Mr. W. L. May, still speak of C. 

 eximius by this aboriginal name. 



C, eximius is illustrated on p. 220 of Swainson's Malacology 

 (1 840). Tenison- Woods thoughtf f that the Elenchus splendidulus 

 of the same author \\ was identical, but I would regard that name 

 as a synonym of the New Zealand C. opalus Martyn. 



* Tabl. Syat. Anim. Moll. 1821, p. 88. 



+ Proc. Roy. Soc. Vict, xviii. 1906, p.65. 



t Trans. Roy. Soc. S.A. xxxi. 1907, p.350. 



§ Nautilus xvi. 1902, p.72. 



|| Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist. viii. 1861, p. 14. 



H Aborigines of Tasmania, 2nd Ed. 1899, p. 133. 



** Tasm. Journ. Nat. Sci. i. 1842, p.252. 



+t Proc. Roy. Soc. Tasm. 1877, p.41. 



%%Loc. cil. p. 352, footnote. 



