Strttthiolaria.] GASTROPODA. 275 



are fine and flexuous. Colour cinereous, with close longitudinal waved 

 stripes of purple ; interior of mouth light brown ; peristome yellow 

 or white, the outer margin chestnut-brown. Epidermis very thin, 

 horny, deciduous. Spire high, conic, turreted, somewhat higher than 

 the aperture ; outlines slightly convex. Protoconch of 2^- convex, 

 finely spirally striated whorls. Whorls 8 to' 9, regularly increasing, 

 shoulder broad, flat or lightly convex, straight and subvertical below ; 

 last whorl with a second angle bounding the base, which is flatly 

 convex. Aperture oval, channelled above, produced into a short 

 canal below. 1'crixloiiti' continuous. Oiiii r lij> thick, polished, sinuous, 

 a light sinus at the middle and a deeper one on the base ; distinctly 

 angled above on the continuation of the upper carina, and with a 

 rounded projection below the lower angle of the whorl. Columella 

 arcuate, rounded, subtruncate below, sometimes ending in a blunt 

 point. Inner lip thick and polished, spreading far beyond the columella 

 as a thinner callus over the concave parietal wall, but forming a thick 

 tubercle at the upper end and forming a distinct channel with the 

 outer lip. Operculuni oval, with a very sharp projection, dark brown, 

 and concentrically striated. 



Diameter, 50 mm. ; height, 83 mm. Angle of spire, 55-60. 



Animal (Hutton, T.N.Z.I., xv, 117. pi. 12). --The oesophagus is 

 long, the intestine passing through a loop of the aorta, anus on the 

 right side. Gill single, attached to the mantle on the left side ; the 

 plates long, stiff, free, and simple. Renal organ at the base of the 

 gill, the duct opening at the base of the intromittant organ in the male, 

 and between the right tentacle and the anus in the female. The intro- 

 mittant organ is long, slender, non-retractile, situate at the base of 

 the right tentacle. The oviduct of the female ends behind the right 

 tentacle in an expanded fold of the skin. 



Dentition. The odontophore is small. (Hutton, T. N.Z.I., xiv. 163, 

 pi. 6, f. H ; xv. pi. 12, f. 4.) 



Type lost. 



Hob. North and South Islands, Stewart Island ; more common in 

 the north : Cheltenham Beach, Auckland, in sand at extreme low 

 water (H. S.) ; Wellington Harbour (H. S.) ; Nelson (Enys) ; New 

 Brighton, washed up after gales (H. S.) ; Port Pegasus, Stewart Is- 

 land, in 18 fathoms, alive (Captain Bollons) ; Bay of Islands (Q. & 

 G.) ; Kermadec Islands. Brought to England by Captain Cook. Also 

 recorded from the Seychelles. 



Remarks. The operculum, with its free and sharply pointed end, 

 110 doubt serves as a weapon of defence. On taking up a specimen 

 the foot is extended to about 2 in. in length, and moved about in all 

 directions. The Maoris are very fond of the animal of this species, 

 and so are many white people. The peristome of the shell, after 

 removal of the other parts, strung on flax-fibre, was used as an orna- 

 ment by the Maoris. 



Maori. Takai (fide Quoy and Gaimard). 



Fossil in the Pliocene. 



