found on the coast of Northumberland and of Durham. 245 



The colour varies according to age ; in young specimens the 

 aperture is simply fawn-coloured, but in those fully grown it is 

 tinted with bluish pink ; the outer surface is fawn-coloured. The 

 epidermis is of a light brown colour, but owing to its thinness is 

 seldom preserved except in patches. When old, the outer lip is 

 considerably spread out, which gives the shell a striking resem- 

 blance to some Volutes, particularly Voluta magnifica. 



Before the young shell is excluded from the nidamental cap- 

 sule, which contains from two to three individuals, it is a most 

 beautiful object, resembling in its amber-like appearance some of 

 the Succineas ; the capsules are similar to those of Fusus antiquus, 

 but they are larger and not like them piled on each other, but 

 agglutinated separately by a marginal expansion to the inside of 

 dead shells. My largest specimen of Fusus norvegicus is 4^ inches 

 in length and %\ in breadth, and has six whorls : a full-sized em- 

 bryo specimen is half an inch long and a quarter broad. 



Although I have had a specimen alive of this shell, I have not 

 seen the animal in action : the sides of its foot are marked with 

 dark purple blotches ; the mantle on the columellar side is very 

 much thickened, which allows of its being extended over the 

 ventral part of the body- whorl, as indicated by the wide expansion 

 of the inner lip ; and the organ homologous with the so-called 

 mucro of the penis of Buccinum undatum is very much produced 

 and strikingly resembles the spiral of a cork-screw ; following the 

 spiral it measures one inch and |ths in length. 1 have not yet 

 seen the male organ of Fusus antiquus ; I am therefore unable to 

 make any comparison between it and the corresponding part of 

 F. norvegicus. The operculum is very small and somewhat ovate. 



Fusus Turtoni, Bean. 



This species and the preceding one are undoubtedly the most 

 beautiful of the large shells inhabiting the British seas. Consi- 

 dering this circumstance and their extreme rarity, it may be 

 readily imagined that I feel some degree of pleasure in recording 

 them as natives of our coasts. 



Fusus Turtoni may be readily distinguished from Fusus anti- 

 quus and F. norvegicus by its more elongated spire, smaller aper- 

 ture, thicker epidermis, and the more truncated form of its siphon. 

 When young the colour of its aperture is reddish brown, which 

 in full-grown specimens changes to a rich purple-brown, while 

 the lip is of a pure glossy white. The epidermis is of a yellowish 

 horn colour. The outer surface of the shell is light-coloured ; 

 the whorls are marked with slightly elevated broadish spiral 

 cords ; the apex is mammillated, but not so much as it is in F. 

 norvegicus ; the outer lip in full-grown specimens is thickened 

 and reflected, while the inner one is somewhat more expanded than 



