C<iniinella.~] GASTROPODA. 385 



exempted, but extending only from the angle of the shoulder to the 

 suture, and are effaced on the base of the body-whorl ; the angle of 

 the spire-whorls is mostly strongly nodulous. Colour brown' or pur- 

 plish, mostly coated with green or grey ; aperture dark brown within ; 

 outer lip yellowish ; inner lip brown, sometimes mottled with yellow. 

 Spire elevated conic, in height equal to that of the aperture, sometimes 

 a little higher ; outlines somewhat convex. Protoconch of H smooth 

 whorls : nucleus minute, raised. Whorls 7 to 8, shouldered, concave 

 above the angle, flatly rounded below, the last high ; base contracted. 

 Suture well impressed, but not deep. Aperture subvertical, oval, 

 channelled above, with a shprt, widely open, and deeply notched 

 canal below. Outer lip sinuate and contracted above, convex further 

 down, sharp, smooth within. Columella vertical, lightly excavated, 

 broadly rounded. Inner lip moderately broad, smooth, forming a thin 

 layer on the parietal wall, which has but a very low plait below the 

 suture ; narrowed below, twisted, and forming the inner margin of the 

 canal as a thick lamella. Fasciole distinct, mostly very prominently 

 keeled on the outside. Operculum horny, oval ; nucleus apical, dark 

 brown. 



Diameter, 13 mm. ; height, 24-5 mm. (specimen of 7 whorls). 

 Diameter, 18 mm. ; height, 37 mm. (large example, of 8 whorls). 



Dentition. Hutton, T.N.Z.I., xiv, 162, pi. 6, f. C. 



Hab. A most plentiful shell throughout New Zealand, on mud- 

 flats. Zostera beds, and in brackish water. 



Fossil in the Pliocene. 



5. Cominella maculata, Martyn, 1784. Plate 45, fig. 7. 



Buccinum maculatum, Mart., Un. Conch., ii, 1784, f. 49. P-urpura mnculata. 

 Gray, in Yate N.Z., 308. Buc,cinum (Cominella) maculatum, Mart. : 

 Hutton, C.M.M., 14 ; Reeve, Conch. Icon., iii. pi. 3. f. 16. Continelln 

 maculata, Mart. : v. Martens, Crit. List, 19; Ad. G.R.M., pi. 11, f. 6or, 66; 

 Kobelt, Jahrb. Deutsch. Mai. Ges.. 1878, 233 ; Hutton, M.N.Z.M., 53 ; 

 T.N.Z.I., xvi, 231 ; Tryon, Man. Conch. (1), iii, 204, pi. 81, f. 421-24. 

 Buccinum adspersum, Brag., Encycl. Moth., i, 1789, 265. B. turyidum, 

 Gmel., Syst. Nat., ed. xiii, i, 1790, 3641. Purpura turgida, Gmel. : 

 Gray, Dieff. N.Z., 234. Buccinum testudlneiuii. Lam., var., Voy. Astrol., 

 pi. 30, f. 12. 



Shell moderately large, tumid, solid and heavy, almost smooth or 

 spirally lirate, aperture yellow within. Sculpture : Very frequently 

 the spiral lirse are obsolete, the shell smooth, except for growth-lines 

 and axial costee on the upper whorls, but just as often the shell is 

 ornamented with prominent spiral ribs, unequal and inequidistant, 

 with narrow interspaces, but distant on the base, 9 to 10 on the pen- 

 ultimate whorls ; in well-preserved specimens the four whorls succeed- 

 ing the protoconch have broadly rounded elevated axial ribs, about 

 14 on a whorl ; growth-lines more or less distinct, flexuous, sometimes 

 rib-like. Colour mostly uniformly chocolate-brown, sometimes cine- 

 reous, but rarely is the shell yellowish-white, with the cinguli dark 



i:j Moll. N ./. 



