370 PURPURID^. 



Buccinum cinereum. 



Fig. 213, 



Shell oval, tapering at both ends, ash colored, or reddish-brown, with ten or 

 twelve undulations on the lower whorl, crossed by numerous revolving lines. 



Fiisits cinereiis, Sat, Journ. Acad. Nat. Sc. ii. 236 (1821) ; Amer. Conch, pi. 29. De 



Kay, N. Y. Moll. 145, pi. 8, fig. 184— Phil. Abbild. pi. I, figs. 7, 8. 

 Buccinum plicosum, Menke, Syn. 2d ed. 59 (1830). — Gould, Inv. 1st ed. 303, fi"-. 213. 

 Rapana ? cinerea, Stimpson, Check Lists, 6. 



Shell long-oval, taperingr at both ends, coarse, solid, of a reddish- 

 brown color, more or less dark, covered with an ashy-gray pigment ; 

 on some specimens are two faint brown bands on the 

 larger whorl ; whorls five or six, convex, compressed 

 about the suture, with ten or twelve rib-like undulations 

 along each, crossed by numerous, somewhat regular, 

 elevated, revolving lines ; aperture ovate, and, with the 

 beak, about equals the spire ; outer lip sharp, scalloped by 

 the termination of the revolving lines, with one or more 

 series of elevated, whiter lines within, corresponding to 

 the external grooves ; pillar margin sliditly arched, cov- 

 ered with enamel, which rises up by the side of an um- 

 bilical depression ; beak short, slightly curved ; throat of various 

 hues from light violet to dark chocolate ; operculum horny, rounded 

 ovate, elements concentric ; the nucleus near one edge. Length, 

 one inch ; breadth, three fifths of an inch ; divergence, fifty de- 

 grees. 



Found on rocks in bays and inlets, about Nantucket, New Bed- 

 ford, &c., and occasionally sheltered under the edges of stones in 

 Boston Harbor. I am not aware that it is found to the north of 

 Cape Ann, while it is common at the South, and grows to a much 

 larger size. Vineyard Sound (Desor) ; Lynn Harbor (^Haskell) ; 

 St. Simon's Isle, Georgia (Covper}. 



Animal small, foot scarcely covering the aperture, very little di- 

 lated at the front angles, cream colored, margined with lemon color 

 beneath, punctured with light drab above ; siphon merely surpass- 

 ing the tip of the canal ; head scarcely protruded ; tentacula nearly 

 united at origin ; eyes black, at the outer upper third of tentacula, 

 which third is a mere filament, contractile. Motions sluggish. 



Mr. Say noticed that its habits were those of Purpura ; but it is 

 removed from both Fusus and Purpura by its operculum, and will 



