236 
GASTEROPODA OF THE INFERIOR OOLITE. 
smooth, subturbinate shells, often rather small, which have been hitherto regarded 
as Phasianellas ? Their intimate connection with Boiirguetia striata has been 
admitted when both were classed under Phasianella. In fact, Fischer (Man. 
p. 812) says, “ La plupart des pretendus Phasianella des terrains Jurassiques sont 
des BourguetiaP We might then rank these as a second section of Bourguetia, or 
we might make use of Gemmellaro’s subgenus Oonia, to help us out of our 
difficulty. Judging from Gemmellaro’s figures such shells as Oonia turgidula, Gemm., 
are scarcely to be differentiated from some of our Inferior Oolite “ Phasianellas.” 
Without in the least degree believing that this group has any connection with the 
Turbinidae as the name, Phasianella, would imply, I have concluded to continue 
the use of “ Phasianella,'' simply as a term borrowed from existing conchology, 
whilst classifying with a query under Pseudomelaniidae. 
This family is represented in the Tertiaries by Bayania, Mun. Chalmas, in the 
Cretaceous and Jurassic by Pseudomelania, and in the Palaeozoic by Loxonertia 
and Macrochilus. The latter seems to have had a slight fold on the columella. 
Genus — Pseudomelania, Pietet and Campiche, 1862. 
Shell turrited, elongated (spire pointed), not umhilicated, thick; ornaments 
usually confined to lines of growth ; aperture oval, entire, regularly rounded in front, 
and terminating posteally in an angle ; columella thick, and sharing in the general 
curvature of the mouth, always without folds. 
Abridged from “ Les fossiles du Terrain Cretace des environs de Ste. Croix.” 
The authors further distinguished this genus from “ Ghemnitzia" by the mouth 
being regularly rounded in front, and by the absence of transverse [i. e. axial) ribs ; 
from Eulima by the unpolished surface; from the Pyramidellidae by the absence 
of columellar teeth ; from Niso by the want of umbilicus. According to the : 
authors the genus appeared in the Trias, attained its maximum in the Jurassic, 
and diminished in the Cretaceous, beyond which period it did not pass. 
Some slight modifications of the above diagnosis may be required. Thus the j 
earlier Pseudomelanias of our Oolitic rocks develop a tendency to nodose orna- j 
ment, which they may have inherited from ancestors in the Lias, such as Melania | 
nodosa. Desk found in the Upper Lias of Fontaine Btoupe-Four. In one case ! 
also, as we shall perceive, there is a slight tendency to an anterior notch in ! 
the aperture. It may be doubted also whether the spire is much pointed in | 
all cases. | 
'fhere is great variety of form in the Pseudomelanise of the Inferior Oolite; j 
yet, within certain limits, the group represented by Pseudomelania procera, Desk, j 
