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Show 1879.] MR. W. H. DALL O N THE GENERIC NAME GOULDIA. 131 5. PUFFINUS OBSCURUS. Procellaria obscura, Gm. Syst. Nat. i. p. 559. Puffinus obscurus, Finsch, Journ. Mus. Godeff. Heft xii. p. 40. Hab. Manua, Samoan Islands (T. Powell). Native name "Taio," = Taiko. Mr. Powell says that these birds are found in the mountains of Manua in holes, as in the case of the Seu-ta-peau (i.e. F. moestissima). The natives are very fond of them, and catch and consume great numbers, hunting them with dogs. He gives the dimensions of the specimen sent as follows.-Length 12'6 inches from the tip of the bill to the tip of the tail; bill 1*3 ; tail 3*3 ; middle and outer toe 1*8; inner toe 1*5; tarsus 16 (black on the outer side, bluish black on the inner) ; expanse from tip to tip of wings 2 feet 2 inches. 6. O n the Use of the generic N a m e Gouldia in Zoology. B y W . H. D A L L , Smithsonian Institution. [Received January 7, 1879.] Until within a. few days I have never been able to point to the exact place where the late Prof. C. B. Adams described his genus Gouldia; and most foreign naturalists have supposed that its first appearance was in Jay's Catalogue of Shells of January 1850. According to Marschall's continuation of the'Nomenclator Zoologicus,' a genus Gouldia (Trochilidce) was proposed by " Ch. Bonaparte in Paris Acad. 1850," while another authority places the date of the description in 1849. On this account Mr." Guppy of Trinidad, W . I., proposed to substitute Crassinella for the molluscan Gouldia of C. B. Adams. I believe this name has somewhere been used by T. A. Conrad for some fossil allied to Astarte; but I have not been able to find the reference yet. It is, however, of no consequence, since, even had Gouldia, C. B. Ad., been untenable, there are several synonyms which are prior to Crassinella, Guppy, for that genus. I am glad to be able to state definitely, at last, the place of description and date of Gouldia, C. B. Ad., and to establish it on a permanent footing, especially as the eminent naturalist from whom it was named was one to whom I owe a lasting debt of gratitude and affection for the almost paternal kindness with which he forwarded m y first attempts at the study of natural history. The story is most briefly told in a few paragraphs of synony-mical references. Genus GOULDIA, C. B. Adams. Thetis, C. B. Ad. 1845, Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist. ii. p. 9 (Jan. 1845). Genus described, with two species, T. cerina and T. parva, from Jamaica. Not Thetis, J. Sowerby, Min. Conch, t. 513, 1826! Gouldia, C. B. Ad. (in) Cat. of Genera and Species of recent 9* |