344 UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF TOE TERRITORIES. 



in now leaving them there, it seems to be at least desirable to place them in 

 a separate section, as stated below: 



1. pyrifusus, Conrad (typical). 



Shell with body-volution a little compressed dorso-ventrally ; 

 columella flattened ; spire about one-fifth the length of the aperture 

 and canal. — (Type as stated above.) 



2. neptunella, Meek (not Gray). 



Shell with body-volution rounded; columella not flattened ; spire 

 one-half to two-thirds the length of the aperture; outer lip broadly 

 sinuous above the middle — (Fusus Newberryl, Meek and Hayden.) 



The most important difference between these two sections, or groups, is 

 the flattening of the columella in the type of Pyrifusus; while, in our shells, 

 it is certainly not in the slightest degree flattened. I suspect that the 

 broadly sinuous character of the upper part of the outer lip (see the follow- 

 ing wood-cuts) is another difference; but, as neither Mr. Conrad's figure nor 

 his description gives any information on this point, his shell may possibly not 

 differ in this character. 



In the same paper containing Mr. Conrad's description of his genus 

 Pyrifusus, he also proposed another genus, or rather subgenus, Afer; and 

 the species described by him under this group seems to me to agree exactly, 

 in all but mere specific details, with our shells. Consequently, I would not 

 hesitate to place our species under his group Afer, had he founded it upon 

 his Cretaceous species alluded to (Fusus (Afer) bellaliratus, Con.). Unfortu- 

 nately, however, he distinctly mentions as the type of that genus the recent 

 Fusus afer, Lamarck, which to me seems not to be congeneric with any of 

 these Cretaceous shells, as it has a very suddenly contracted, or pinched, and 

 twisted canal, and a distinct revolving umbilical ridge, raising the inner lip 

 into a kind of oblique ridge, and passing down the left side of the canal ; 

 characters not at all indicated in any of these shells.* 



In the American Journal of Conchology, volume IV, page 248, Mr. 

 Conrad has some remarks on two Indian Cretaceous species figured by 

 Dr. Stoliczka in his Palseont. Indica, under the names Rapa nodifera and 

 R. cancellata, and states that they belong to his genus Pyrifusus. To me, 

 however, these Indian shells seem to differ so materially from the idea I had 

 formed of that genus from Mr Conrad's figures and description of the same, 



* r rin- presence of this riilgo implies the existence of a notch at the base of the canal, as well as tie' 

 probable presence of an umbilical perforation, in at least some species of the same group. 



