THE BRITISH NATURALIST. 



39 



and exhibited a recent specimen of Pleurotomaria Beyrichii, from Enoshima, Japan. 

 Much interest, zoologically and palseontologically, attaches to the ancient genus Pleu- 

 rotomaria, a gasteropod which, previous to 1855, was on ^Y known in a fossil state. A 

 large proportion of the older trochiform fossil shells have their whorls, whether round 

 or angular, marked by a peculiar band, usually terminating in a deep slit at the aperture. 

 Most of these were solid nacreous shells, and belong to the genus Pleurotomaria. In 

 Woodward's Manual of the Mollusca the number of known species, ranging from the 

 Silurian to the Chalk formation, was recorded (in 1854) as 400. Since that date the 

 number of fossil forms described has been greatly increased. The palseontological gap 

 which seemed to separate the fossil Pleurotomaria? from the fauna of to-day has been 

 reduced, whilst the dredge of the zoologist and the nets of the fishermen have demonstrated 

 with equal success that Pleurotomaria is living in the seas of the present date. The rarity 

 of recent specimens, however, whether in public museums or private collections, is an 

 incontestable fact. Four species, P. Rumphii. P. Adansoniana, P. Quoyana, and P. 

 Beyrichii, are known;, comprising in all only a dozen specimens, and of those neither the 

 British Museum, nor the Museum of Jardin des Plantes, Paris, possesses an example. 

 Little is known of the animal, most of the specimens being tenanted by hermit crabs when 

 taken, but a specimen of P. Beyrichii, obtained by Dr. Gottsche, of Berlin, during his 

 residence in Japan, from a fisherman of Enoshima, was actually caught with the mollusc 

 in it, but the "intelligent " native very carefully removed it, and thus a most valuable 

 prize was lost to science. The specimen exhibited by Mr. Fulton is a large and beautiful 

 example, and was received from a fisherman at Enoshima. It is pale yellow in colour, 

 streaked with bright orange red. There are now 1,160 species of Pleurotomaria known to 

 science (including 226 British fossil species), which may be summarized in geologica 

 distribution as follows: — Living species, four; Tertiary, eleven; Secondary, 575; 

 Palaeozoic, 570. One is reluctantly compelled to admit that, although not extinct, 

 Pleurotomaria is a genus of the past, and that, numerically speaking, its sun has set, both 

 as regards individuals and distinct species, when compared with the grand extension the 

 genus enjoyed in ages long past. 



Mr. W. E. Hoyle exhibited an interesting collection of marine shells from Norway, 

 dredged by Professor G. O. Sars, and presented to the Manchester Museum by Dr. 

 Frithiof Nansen, the Arctic explorer. The collection, which includes some fine examples 

 of northern forms of Astarte, Lyonsia, Aximus, and Yoldia, is now displayed to public 

 view in the shell galleries of the Museum. 



Mr. F. Taylor showed a series of Helix memoralis from Castleton, Derbyshire, showing 

 variation in colouring of mouth, from the usual dense black, to pure white, which is the 

 most uncommon form. Mr. Edward Collier exhibited a curiously repaired shell of 

 Clausilia ; Mr. Robert Standen showed an enormous specimen of the common whelk, 

 nearly six inches in length, dredged off the Aberdeenshire coast ; and Mr. W. Moss 

 showed some fine examples of a planorbis-like Ampularia from Trinidad. 



The following resolution was proposed by the President, seconded by Mr. W. E. Hoyle, 

 and carried unanimously: — "That this society cannot meet without recording their deep 

 regret for the loss of the late Professor A. Milnes Marshall, and of his encouragement, 

 which he was always so ready to give to all Natural History studies." 



