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Show 1891.] MR. E. A. SMITH ON SHELLS FROM ADEN. 399 we find that they have as near representatives in the Indo-Pacific. In the case of the fourth species, Tellina isseli, I am not aware that it has been found anywhere except in the Gulf of Suez, a fact which to some extent confirms its distinctness from the Mediterranean T. balaustina, considering that all the other species common to the two seas have an enormous distribution. In the foregoing observations no reference has been made to the light which Palaeontology may throw upon the subject of distribution of the species in question. It is true that most of them are found fossil in the Miocene, Pliocene, and other Tertiary rocks of Italy, Sicily, &c, a fact which would seem to indicate a long establishment in the northern hemisphere. On the other hand, a number of recent Mediterranean and Atlantic forms have already been recorded from the Tertiary deposits of Australia1; and we may therefore conjecture that when the Palaeontology of Australia and other eastern countries has been more fully worked out, many more so-called European species will be discovered. Such being the case, I fail to perceive that the evidence afforded by Palaeontology lends more support to any one of the theories of distribution set forth than to another. Probably all are wrong. List of the Yerbury and Baynham Collections of Shells from Aden. I. GASTROPODA. 1, CONUS SUMATRENSIS, HwaSS. Hab. Red Sea (Reeve $• others). Gulf of Akaba (Brit. Mus.) ; Aden (Caramagna). 2. CONUS CAPITANEUS, Linn. Hab. Ceylon, Philippines, Australia, N e w Caledonia, Polynesia, Mauritius. Andaman Is. (Brit. Mus.). 3. CONUS RATTUS, Hwass. Hab. Red Sea, Ceylon, N e w Caledonia, Tahiti, &c. Islands of Rodriguez and Annaa (Brit. Mus.). 4. CONUS TESSELLATUS, Born. Hab. Red Sea, Persian Gulf, Ceylon, Mozambique, Mauritius, Philippines, New Caledonia, Polynesia. Island of Rodriguez, Torres Straits, Fiji Islands (Brit. Mus.); Aden (Caramagna). 5. CONUS QUERCINUS, Hwass. Hab. Red Sea, E. Africa, Mauritius, Ceylon, Philippines, Viti Islands, Sandwich Islands, N e w Caledonia, Friendly Islands. Some adult specimens 80 millimetres long, obtained by Major Yerbury, are entirely without the spiral thread-like lines which occur in young shells. They are covered with a very thick fibrous or spongy epidermis. 1 E. Etheridge, jun., Cat. Australian Fossils, 1878. 2/ |