. The Conchologist. . NOTE ON THE LOCALITY OF HELIX MANDARINA, Gray. BY EDGAR A. SMITH, THIS well-known species was described by Dr. Gray,* from specimens obtained by Captain F. W. Beechey's expedition to the Pacific, during the years 1825 to 1828. The locality given by Gray, I am inclined to believe erroneous. It has never been con- firmed, but, at the same time I should observe, no other locality has been assigned to this shell. In 1889, Mr. Yokoyama, of the Tokio University, Japan, presented a specimen to the British Museum, which he said was collected at the Bonin or Arzobispo Islan
. The Conchologist. . NOTE ON THE LOCALITY OF HELIX MANDARINA, Gray. BY EDGAR A. SMITH, THIS well-known species was described by Dr. Gray,* from specimens obtained by Captain F. W. Beechey's expedition to the Pacific, during the years 1825 to 1828. The locality given by Gray, I am inclined to believe erroneous. It has never been con- firmed, but, at the same time I should observe, no other locality has been assigned to this shell. In 1889, Mr. Yokoyama, of the Tokio University, Japan, presented a specimen to the British Museum, which he said was collected at the Bonin or Arzobispo Islands, as they are also called. Later on in that year, the Museum received a second example from the same locality, and a third specimen, the largest I have seen, has just been obtained from Mr. Hoist, who collected it himself on these islands. On turning to Captain Beechey's work,'^ I find, that after leaving Macao in China, the " Blossom" proceeded to the Loo Choo Islands, thence to the Bonin Islands, Kamts- chatka, and Behring Straits. I think, there- fore, there is every probability that Captain * Zool., Beechey's , p. 143, pi. 34, f. 2 ; pi. 38, f. 3. t Narrative of a Voyage to the Pacific, in Blossom, 1825-8, Vol. ii., p. 228. Beechey's specimens were obtained at the Bonin Islands, seeing that the 'expedition visited there, and not at Loo Choo as originally supposed. The variability of this shell in form has been remarked upon by Gray and Pfeiffer, but no reference has been made to any variation in colour. The normal form is of a rich reddish-brown colour, encircled with a pale zone at the periphery. In some specimens the ground-colour is lighter, and the pale zone at the periphery is replaced by one or more bright red bands. Two specimens in the Museum, both of which have been occupied by Paguri, are peculiar in having a pale roughish ridge on the base of the body-whorl surrounding the umbilical region. It has the appearance of being the result of an
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