LECHMERE GUPPY FAUNA OF GULF OF PARI A. 185 
of the West Indian marine shells, — a work published for 
private circulation only, but which is most valuable for its 
suggestions as to synonymy. I have, however, allowed 
myself considerable liberty in the fusion of specific names 
allowed to stand in Krebs’ list; for the author of that work, 
while condemning the “ sickly passion ” which possesses 
some naturalists for describing so-called new species, still 
allowed too many doubtful appellations to crowd his pages. 
As regards the references to figures, I have generally 
selected such as portray the species fairly, and where 
possible I have chosen those most easily accessible to 
students ; only citing the more expensive and larger works 
on conchology where the ordinary manuals failed me. 
In the synonymy the names quoted may not, in all cases, 
have been originally intended for the species under which 
they here stand, but may have been incorrectly applied by 
some author. Owing to the close resemblance of some 
species of the eastern hemisphere to western ones, it has 
often happened that one name has been used for two distinct 
shells ; and I am not sure that we have yet in all cases 
avoided the errors traceable to this source of confusion. 
The principle on which the authorities are cited is that 
the specific names are assigned to the author who first 
described the species, and not to the one who first adopted a 
particular collocation of generic and specific names. This 
principle has been generally acted up to by conchologists ; 
but it is to be regretted that many writers on natural 
science have followed a different course, thereby intro- 
ducing unnecessary disorder into nomenclature. The want 
of a definite enunciation of the rule may be somewhat to 
blame for this: I propose the following — “The author's 
