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THE VOYAGE OF H.M.S. CHALLENGER. 
test is ovate or pyriform, and sometimes slightly flattened on three sides. The shell- 
wall is generally exceedingly thin and transparent. 
The species is common to the North and South Atlantic, the North and South 
Pacific, the Indian Ocean, and the Mediterranean. It is especially abundant in the North 
Atlantic, and, though it does not reach as far north as some of its congeners, has been 
found between lat. 65° and 70° N., off the coast of Norway. Its extreme bathymetrical 
range, so far as has been ascertained, is from 37 to 2550 fathoms, but a very large pro- 
portion of the recorded localities are at depths between 100 and 1200 fathoms. 
The geological history of Bulimina pyrula extends over a considerable period. It is 
stated by Parker and Jones that “a Bulimina of very similar shape occurs in the Upper 
Triassic Clay of Chellaston.” The species is found in the Eocene clay of the London 
Basin (Parker and Jones) ; in the Miocene formations of the neighbourhood of Vienna 
(d’Orbigny) ; in the Pliocene of Southern Italy (Costa) ; and in the Post-pliocene deposits 
of Canada (Dawson). 
Bulimina pyrula, var. spinescens, nov. (PI. L. figs. 11, 12). 
In general contour the figured specimens closely resemble the drawings given by 
d’Orbigny of Bulimina pyrula (For. Foss. Vien., pi. xi. figs. 9, 10), but the broad initial 
end of the test is beset with short spines. Parker and Jones, in their notes on Bulimina 
'■pyrula (Phil. Trans., vol. civ. p. 372), state of the typical form, that “it is usually 
prickled at the apex.” This is probably intended to refer primarily to their Norwegian 
gatherings, and it does not hold good as a general rule ; for, amongst specimens from at 
-least forty or fifty localities, the only examples in the spinous condition are a compara- 
tively small number from a single Station in the Eastern Archipelago, namely, — off 
Ki Islands, depth, 580 fathoms. 
Bulimina ovata, d’Orbigny (PI. L. fig. 13, a.b.). 
Bulimina ovata, d’Orbigny, 1846, For. Foss. Vien., p. 185, pi. xi. figs. 13, 14. 
„ pedunculata, Costa, 1856, Atti dell’ Accad. Pont., vol. vii. p. 334, pi. xviii. fig. 13. 
Bulimina affinis, d’Orbigny (PI. L. fig. 14, a.b.). 
Bulimina affinis, d’Orbigny, 1839, Fornm. Cuba, p. 109, pi. ii. figs. 25, 26. 
„ ovulum, Reuss, 1850, Haidinger’s Naturw. Abbandl., vol. iv. p. 38, pi. iv. fig. 9. 
Bulimina pupoides, d’Orbigny (PI. L. fig. 15, a.b.). 
Bulimina pupoides, d’Orbigny, 1846, For. Foss. Vien., p. 185, pi. xi. figs. 11, 12. 
„ „ Williamson, 1858, Rec. For. Gt. Br., p. 62, pi. v. figs. 124, 125. 
„ presli, var. pupoides, Parker and Jones, 1862, Introd. Foram., Appendix, p. 311. 
„ pupoides, Terrigi, 1880, Atti dell’ Accad. Pont., ann. xxxiii. p. 193, pi. ii. figs. 30-34. 
The three quasi- specific groups above enumerated cannot be separated, except by 
comparative characters too variable to be of any real zoological value. The most that 
