76 AUSTRALIA* LAND SHELL?. 



and reflected, reducing the vestige of an umbilicus to a very slight, 

 aperture. 

 Length 1*15 ; breadth, - oo ; aperture 055 long ; 0-30 broad, of an inch. 



Habitat. Bald Head, King George's Sound, W. Australia. King. 

 Quoy and Gaimard, and Masters. 



A great deal of confusion has been unnecessarily created with reference 

 to B. Kingi in its relationship to B. trilineatus. Nearly twenty 

 3'ears ago Pfeifler, Man. Hel. Viv., Vol. II., p. 174, observed that B. 

 trilineatus seemed to be a variety of B. Kingi. It would have been 

 better perhaps had he acted upon this opinion, which might have 

 saved three out of the four figures, with descriptions in Peeve, which 

 are calculated to confound. Let the reader carefully compare the 

 plates and descriptions of sp. 310, and sp. 397, and he will see a 

 good example of attempted conchological mystification, without any 

 excuse on the score of difficulty. 



Having examined many hundred specimens of Bulimi other than B. 

 melo, collected at King George's Sound by Mr. Masters, I feel no 

 hesitation whatever in referring them to one species. Those corres- 

 ponding with Gray's original description of B. Kingi, as being 

 conically-ovate, with aperture equal to the spire and being inside 

 the mouth of a purplish black, are easily picked out ; but there exist 

 gradations between such and the ovately- conical shape, with spire 

 longer than the last whorl of Quoy and Gaimard' 's original descrip- 

 tion of B. trilineatus, I therefore join them. My description applies 

 to shells exhibiting the most usual style of marking, including the 

 short Kingi and the long trilineata, marked precisely alike, and in 

 shape graduating as one series. Among the varieties one is whitish 

 with very faint }'ellowish streaks ; this has the mouth white within. 

 Another pale variety, with more frequent, but very narrow dark 

 streaks, has the darkened mouth and dark columella patch of the 

 description. This is always a much thinner shell than B. melo, more 

 elongated, and not inflated. 



Here I take the liberty of referring to the figure in Wood's Index 

 Testaceologicus, edition by Hanley, 18 ">6 Helix. Plate VII. Fig. 

 27 a. for the purpose of expressing my admiration of the ingenuity 

 displayed in producing a figure so utterly at variance with what it is 

 intended to represent ; yet, the very next figure, that of B. Bufresni, 

 although also on a very small scale, is remarkably good. 



186. Bulimus rhodostoma. Gray. Plate XII. Fig 13, copied 



from Reeve. 



Gray, Pro. Zool. Soc., 1834, p. 65. 

 Reeve, Cone. Icon. sp. 323. 



Shell narrowly umbiheated, ovate, solid, striated, obsoletely decussated 

 above with concentric lines, reddish-yellow, clouded with rose colour, 

 obsoletely banded with brown ; spire conical, acute ; whorls 7, 

 scarcely convex, last scarcely exceeding the spire ; suture somewhat 

 crenulated ; columella nearly straight ; aperture ovately-oblong, rose 

 coloured within ; peristome simple, obtuse, margins sub-parallel, 

 columellar margin reflected, vaulted. 



