| OCR Text |
Show 1870.] DR. J. C. COX ON NEW LAND SHELLS. 81 from St. Victoire, France. It was purchased by the Society 30th April, 1866, and died 13th November, 1869. It proved to be a male on dissection. The specific wing-markings being absent when the body was received by me, I thought proper to place it in Mr. George Gray's hands for identification. This gentleman pronounced it, as appearing to him, no other than A. chrysaetos, Linn. The skin, being in poor condition, was not kept; but the skeleton was retained by him for the National Osteological Collection. In case that any doubts might hereafter arise regarding the specimen, I considered that the history of the bird should be attached to the skeleton as well as published. Mr. Gurney coincided with m e in this opinion, and at m y request kindly forwarded the accompanying note for that purpose. « Nov. 24, 1869. " M Y D E A R S I R , - Y o u will find in the volume of the * Ibis' for 1864, p. 339, the account of two young specimens of A. barthelemyi which came into m y possession in 1857, and the survivor of which six or seven years afterwards obtained the white scapular spots which are found close to the junction of the wing with the body in the Eagle to which the above name has been assigned. "These marks were very beautiful and conspicuous when I wrote the paper in the ' Ibis ' above referred to ; but subsequently to the specimen passing into the hands of the Zoological Society in 1866, they seem to have disappeared, and I conclude from what you tell me that they were not apparent in the bird at the time of death. " I doubt much whether Aquila barthelemyi be a race entitled to specific rank, but whatever it be, the bird in question which passed from m y possession to that of the Zoological Society, and of which the skeleton is now in the British Museum, undoubtedly belongs to it, and is entitled to the name of A. barthelemyi, if that name be recognized as of specific value. « T o '"J.'ll. GURNEY." 9. Descriptions of Seventeen New Species of Land Shells from the South-Sea Islands, in the Cabinet of Mr. JOHN BRAZIER of Sydney. By Dr. JAMES C. COX, C.M.Z.S. 1. HELIX ALLECTA. Shell with a deep open funnel-shaped umbilicus, depressedly orbicular, thin, uniformly closely and strongly striated, the striae of a dull, dark-reddish chestnut colour; spire flat; whorls 4 | to 5, convex, the last not descending in front; suture deep and excavated ; aperture rounded ; peristome simple, obtuse, columellar margin dilated. Diam., greatest 0*10, least 0*08 ; height 0*04 of an inch. Hab. Upolu, Navigator's Islands ; found on the mountains, under decayed wood (Brazier). PROC. ZOOL. Soc-1870, No, VI. |
