234 DR JOHNSTON'S DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE OE THE 



//,//-. Berwick Bay, in deep water, frequent. 



Animal with two long cylindrical slightly tapered tentacula of a scarlet co- 

 lour spotted with pale yellow, yellowish on the under side : eyes at the 

 base, external, prominent, sessile : mouth at the end of a long cylindrical 

 snout, scarlet, speckled with pale yellow ; the tongue slender, cartilagi- 

 nous, jointed, invested in a sheath : body whitish, freckled with scarlet : 

 margin of the cloak plain, reflected, with a very short canal in place of a 

 syphon : penis placed under the opposite tentaculum, retroflexed, curved, 

 flattened : rectum opening above the penis with a narrow orifice : foot 

 somewhat pedunculate, oblong, truncate anteriorly, tapered behind, rather 

 short, plain, white : operculum fixed on the back of the foot, horny, ellip- 

 tical, and rather small. Creeps very slowly, the tentacula being widely 

 extended, and used as feelers. The faeces are in the form of small egg- 

 shaped pellets, and are deposited in heaps. The interior of the shell is 

 purplish. 



2. Fusus. LAMARCK. 



Shell fusiform, ventricose at the middle, the spire produced ; aper- 

 ture oval, with an elongated straight canal ; pillar smooth ; outer 

 lip even, acute. 



1. F. antiquus, shell ovate-fusiform, white, thick, plain, obsoletely 

 striated in a spiral direction ; whorls nine, rounded and angu- 

 lated in the middle ; aperture oval, dilated, yellow with a white 

 rim ; pillar with a thick fold at the base ; canal short. Length 

 about 6 inches. Lam. Anim. s. vert. vii. 125. Flem. Brit. Anim. 

 348. Murex antiquus, Linn. Dillw* Rec. Sh. 724. 



Hab. Berwick Bay, in deep water, frequent. 



I have a specimen of this shell, found near Alemouth, and presented to me 

 by Miss Is. Forster, which is eight inches in length, and three and a half 

 in breadth, but it rarely exceeds six inches. It is sometimes partial ly 

 covered with the remains of a thin brown epidermis, but more commonly 

 this is worn off. The body-whorl of the female is more bellied than that 

 of the male, the shell of the latter being beautifully proportioned. " The 

 shell, suspended horizontally," says Dr Fleming, " is employed in the 

 Zetland cottage as a lamp, the cavity containing the oil, and the canal the 

 wick." I have seen it used in the same manner, and for the same pur- 

 pose, by the fishermen on this coast. 



Animal white : tentacula dorsal, flattened, much dilated at the base, the small 

 eyes seated in an incisure on their outer edge near the middle : margin of 

 the cloak plain : syphon canaliculate, plain, speckled with black exterior- 

 ly : mouth furnished with a long cylindrical exsertile proboscis containing 

 a slender filiform cartilaginous tongue marked with numerous cross stria*, 

 and surrounded with a sheath of brown muscular fibres : branchiae in two 

 very unequal plume-like adnate processes laid along the syphonal side of 

 the branchial cavity, and on the opposite side there is an elevated ridge 

 produced by the course of the rectum, which opens on the margin of the 

 cavity with a plain orifice ; the interior of the intestine yellowish-brown, 

 and strongly plaited in a longitudinal direction : penis retroflected, large, 

 linear, flatted, obtuse and truncate: foot oval, rugose, straw-coloured: 

 operculum brown, horny, pyriform, marked with concentric striae. 



The nidus of this molluscum is a very curious object. It is firmly attached 

 to rocks in deep water by a broad base, and forms an obtuse cone about 

 three inches high and two in diameter, made up of a number of large cells 

 or pouches joined together by a strong cartilaginous baud or skin. Kach 

 cell is shaped something like the human nail, convex outwardly and con- 

 rave on the inner >ide, the outer coat strong and cartilaginous, with a slit 

 on the upprr ed-e. \V ithiu this, and" only loosely connected with it, there 



