1880. ] Recent Mollusca during the year 1879. 435 
In Bulletin No. 14 of the U. S. National Museum, we have a 
“Catalogue of the Collection illustrating the animal resources 
and the fisheries of the United States,” prepared under the direc- 
tion of Mr. G. Brown Goode, and referring to the collection 
exhibited by the National Museum and the Smithsonian Institu- 
tion at Philadelphia in 1876. 
Part 11, of this Bulletin (pp. 249-271) comprises ‘the “ Cata- 
logue of illustrations of the Economical Invertebrates of the 
American coasts, by W. H. Dall.” Nine pages (251-259) of this 
relates to Mollusks, in which, of course, the pearl shells and 
oysters occupy the larger part. Had the uses of exotic Mollusks 
also been considered, the list might have been considerably aug- 
mented; the number of species given among the Gasteropods 
and Lamellibranchs includes few except those actually used for 
food or bait. A very much larger number might have been enu- 
merated as possibly available, but this was not thought desirable. 
A very useful aid to all students of the fauna of the North-east 
American coast, is the “Preliminary Check-list of the marine 
Invertebrata of the Atlantic coast from Cape Cod to the Gulf of 
St. Lawrence, by A. E. Verrill,” prepared for the U. S. Fish Com- 
mission, of which the author’s edition was printed at New Haven 
in June, 1879. Four hundred and seventy-four species and varie- 
ties of Mollusks and Molluscoids are enumerated, and forty-three 
Tunicates, distributed as follows : Cephalopods, 12 sp.; Gaster- 
opods (including 44 sp. Nudibranchiates), 187 sp. ; Pteropods, 4 
Sp.; Solenoconchs, 3 sp.; Lamellibranchs, 122 sp. ; Brachiopods, 
3 Sp. (and two doubtful ones); Polyzoa, 141 sp.; and Tunicates, 
43 Sp. and varieties. A comparison of these numbers with those 
of Stimpson’s Smithsonian Check-list of 1860, “ Arctic seas to 
Georgia,” including practically all that was then known of the 
Atlantic coast, shows the vast progress that has been made. 
Stimpson’s numbers are as follows: Cephalopods, 16 sp; Gas- 
teropods (including 22 Nudibranchs), 240 sp. ; Pteropods, 6 sp. ; 
Solenoconchs, 2 sp.; Lamellibranchs, 189 sp.; Brachiopods 3 
sp. (2 doubtful) ; Polyzoa, 27 sp.; and Tunicates 29 sp.; total for 
the whole Atlantic coast, 514 species and varieties, against 517 
now catalogued for the small portion between the Gulf of St. 
Lawrence and Cape Cod alone. 
This great advance may be almost wholly attributed to the 
researches of the officers of the U. S. Fish Commission and those 
