1881. ] Recent Mollusca during the year 1880. 717 
It may be noted that Zonjtes may be beneficial by destroying the 
Limaces, as it is believed to be carnivorous. 
Descriptive and Miscellaneous Papers——Very few exclusively of 
this character have been published during the year, although, as 
usual, several noted under previous heads, contain descriptive 
matter. 
Octopus obesus and O. lentus are described by Professor Verrill 
as new to the north-east American coast (Am. Fourn. Sct., Feb., 
1880, xIx, pp. 137-8) from specimens obtained by fishing vessels 
off Sable islind and Le Have bank, and presented by their com- 
manders to the U. S. Fish Commission. 
Partula mooreana, from the Island of Moorea in the Pacific, is 
described as new by Dr. W. D. Hartman (Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci., 
Phil., 1880, p. 220). 
In the Valley Naturalist (St. Louis) 1, 1, Sept., 1880. p. 6, Mr. 
Calkins describes Ammnicola ferruginea n.s., from the Calumet 
river, Ill., with a woodcut, and gives some “ Notes on some 
Florida Uniones,” in which he unites Unio duckleyi and U. buddt- 
anus Lea, specifically, beside considering the distribution of a 
nearly allied form, U. d/axdingianus Lea. In the December num- 
ber (p. 53), he describes, with a good figure, Zonttes upsoni, a new 
Minute and interesting species from Illinois. Mr. Calkins also 
Printed in July, 1880, an octavo catalogue of the Uniones in his 
Cabinet, which comprises some four hundred numbers. 
At the meeting ofthe Am. Assoc. for the Adv. of Science, at Bos- 
ton, papers were read by Professor E. S. Morse entitled, “ Observa- 
tions of Japanese Brachiopods,” and “ Notes on Japanese Pul- 
Monifera,” but the reporter has not come across, as yet, any pub- 
lished synopsis of these papers, which it is to be hoped will 
appear in the annual volume. 
Professor Alpheus Hyatt, in one of the Teachers’ Science 
Guides (Ginn & Heath, Boston, 1880), has given an account of 
Some of our commoner, economically important mollusks, such 
as the oyster and clam. 
A book, by Mr. Emerton, on the animals of the sea-shore, 
which (like that of Professor Hyatt just referred to) has not been 
seen by the recorder, may contain some matter pertinent to this 
record, 
Articles on the economical mollusks appear from’ time to time 
in the daily or weekly press. Some of these contain matter 
