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Show 1 9 0 6 . ] OF SOUTHERN INDIA AND CEYLON. 6 3 7 many are useless. Kelaart's specimens are marked as such, apparently in Hancock s writing, and generic and specific names are usually but not invariably appended. (c) A collection designated by the label " Madras (or India) 1867. Sir Walter Elliot." This collection does not appear to hav e been sorted or named by Alder and Hancock. Besides Nudibranchs, it contains Tectibranchs, Pulmonates, Lamellariidfe, and Echinoderms. The drawings consist of figures of about 55 species of Nudibranchs made from life by Kelaart in Ceylon. Thirty-five of these figures are now reproduced. The rest have been left aside, in most cases because other figures of the animals which they represent have been published, but in a few cases because they add nothing to the printed description. The poorly executed figure of Doris cerisci, for example, adds nothing to Kelaart's statement that it is a small Doris of a cherry-red colour. It may be asked whether it is worth while to publish these old drawings. Bergli seems inclined to think that it would be better to leave aside all inadequate descriptions of Nudibranchs and pay no attention to them. This would be convenient if it were practically possible, and little would be lost. But is it practically possible ? Bergli's own lists contain a selection of Kelaart's names, and yet I think he has sometimes redescribed Kelaart's species under other names, which he would hardly have done if he had seen the drawings. Further, there is a great practical advantage in giving animals old names, because they are less liable to alteration. If a nudibranch bears a name given by Kelaart, it need not be rebaptized if it is found to be identical with species imperfectly described by Pease, Angas, Abraham, and others. Apart from this, Kelaart is by no means an authority to be despised, though he has not found favour with many of his critics. He totally ignored anatomy, and his descriptions of external characters have not that wealth and precision of detail which might be desired. But he is exact in recording localities and seasons, and he adds many notes on the habits of the animals, particularly on their spawn. His papers are of little service to the student of preserved specimens, but, taken together with his drawings, they will probably enable a naturalist in Ceylon to identify most of his species. They appear to have been published three times :- (ci) As a pamphlet (pp. 1-64), dated " Trincomalie. 1st November, 1857." I have a copy of this pamphlet, which I have used in preparing the present paper. (b) In the Journal of the Ceylon Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society in 1858. (c) In the Annals and Magazine of Natural History, 1859, in three separate papers :- I. Ann. & Mag. 1859, vol. iii. pp. 291-304. |