402 CYPR^IDiE. 



the young is probably Voluta pallida of Adams (not of 

 Linne), and it agrees with the type in my possession of 

 Turton's V. fusiformis. 



M. catenata and M. alba were erroneously described 

 as British by Colonel Montagu, M. catenata on the au- 

 thority of Swainson and Laskey, and M. alba on the 

 unsupported testimony of the last-named witness ; both 

 species are common in parcels of West-Indian shells. 



Genus II. CYPBJE'A*, Linne\ PL VII. f. 4. 



Body like that of Marginella. 



Shell oval, usually smooth and polished: spire in most 

 species covered over and concealed when the shell is full- 

 grown : mouth narrow, stretching from one end of the shell 

 to the other, and channelled at the top and bottom : outer lip 

 folding inwards : pillar notched or tuberculated. 



Mucianus and Rondelet supposed that this shell-fish 

 was the famous e^ev^V, which is said by Herodotus to 

 have arrested, at the instance of Venus, the course of 

 Periander's ship, and to have thus prevented the exe- 

 cution of his barbarous design with regard to the Cor- 

 cyrian youths. Hence the name of Cyprcea or Concha 

 Venerea. The events of Aristotle was evidently the 

 sea-lamprey or lumpsucker. 



The young shell has a prominent spire, like that of 

 Marginella, which it resembles in shape also; in the 

 adult or perfect state the spire is covered and usually 

 concealed by successive layers of porcellanous matter, 

 and the shell then exhibits a close affinity to Ovula. 

 The outer lip in the earlier state of growth is thin and 

 has a sharp edge ; it is subsequently folded inwards and 

 thickened, so as to contract the mouth. Bruguiere 



* More correctly Cypria ; from Cypris, one of the names of Venus. 



