Excerpt from Catalogue of the Marine Mollusks of Japan: With Descriptions of New Species and Notes on Others Stearns Collected by Frederick Stearns This catalogue grew from the research incidental to the identification of the mollusca procured by Mr. Frederick Stearns during two visits to Japan. A portion of the collection made in 1889 - 90 having been submitted to the writer for identification, it was found to contain a number of new and interesting species, some of which were described and figured in the Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia for 1891, and in the The Nautilus. A catalogue ot this collection (pp. 20, 1 plate) was prepared by Mr. Stearns, and widely circulated among naturalists. A much more extensive collection was secured by Mr. Stearns upon bis second visit to Japan, and it was found necessary to review so considerable an amount of conchological literature in its identification, that it seemed desirable to collate the references to Japanese mollusks subsequent to the date of Dunker's excellent work, Index Molluscomm maris Japonici, as well as those not contained in that catalogue, and, together with descriptions and figures of the new forms discovered by Mr. Stearns, to publish a new catalogue of Japanese marine mollusca. The present volume contains about 500 species more than Dunker's Index, although a considerable number of forms enumerated by him are herein considered synonyms or are rejected from the Japanese list.40 species and 8 varieties believed to be new are described, including some of which diagnoses have already appeared in the Nautilus, and the species of certain families, such as Patellidce, Fissureltidce, etc., are somewhat critically revised. In the families Rissoidce, Eulimidce and Pyramidellidic a considerable number of forms collected by Mr. Stearns remain unidentified. Although some of them are doubtless new, the literature of these groups has been so overloaded with Arthur Adams descriptions which do not describe, that intelligent work upon the Japanese forms is impossible. The literature of descriptive zoology furnishes but few instances of work more superficial and worthless than that of this industrious dilettante. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.