322 



competition with it are the Trochus magus and Cypr&a europ&a ; 

 but the c pullus' when enthroned in a splendidly painted shell, 

 surpasses everything we are acquainted with amongst our 

 indigena. It is a decided littoral species, at times abundant 

 at Exmouth, feeding on the algse of the lowest levels. It has 

 always been thought phytophagous, but having examined 

 many, we were surprised to find in the stomachs of all a 

 number of minute Foraminifera, amongst them the Lobatula 

 vulgaris and Textularia oblong a : these objects were whole, 

 and did not appear to have been acted on by the tongue, 

 which is in this species a powerful organ. It is doubtful 

 how the nutriment is extracted ; perhaps the gastric juice may 

 ultimately dissolve them. 



Though it is the fashion to admit Phasianella as a Trochi- 

 dan, from having on the upper lobe vibracula, we doubt the 

 propriety of this arrangement : first, because it has not the 

 circular operculum ; secondly, the sexes are distinct ; thirdly, 

 it has the foot and quality of progression of the Littorince, to 

 which genus I think it has more analogy than to Trochus ; at 

 any rate it is a transition form ; and as Trochus, from its pro- 

 bable hermaphroditism, will now precede all the Holostomata, 

 so Phasianella will follow it and its associates with circular 

 multispiral opercula, Cacum and Turritella, also probable 

 hermaphrodites. 



SCISSURELLA, D'Orbigny. 



S. CRISP AT A, Fleming. 

 S. crispata, Brit. Moll. ii. p. 544, pi. 63. f. 6. 



VERMETID^E, nobis. 



This new family, agreeably to my method of classification, 

 is introduced to receive the genus Cfecum; and further ob- 

 servations have led me to relieve the British list of the Turri- 

 tellid(B, by a transfer of its single genus, Turritella, to this 

 family ; which genera, from their close affinity to the hitherto 



