BUCCINUM. 295 



the other varieties it is easily known bv its far greater 

 delicacy, the want of longitudinal ribs, and remarkable 

 style of colouring. The operculum bears the same pro- 

 portion to the size of the mouth as that of Aporrhais ; 

 it seems to be more ornamental than useful, like the 

 coquettish hats worn by the girls of Tuscany on the 

 crown of their heads. The opercular lobe covers only 

 the centre of the operculum, the upper and under sides 

 of which are sometimes encrusted with sessile Forami- 

 nifera. The egg-cases are separate and hemispherical. 

 Some of the above characters are so peculiar as perhaps 

 to warrant the generic separation of B. Humphrey - 

 sianum — under the name of Mada, its surface being 

 glabrous. 



It is the B. Puxleianum of Leach j not B. Humphrey- 

 sianum of Moller, Loven, Middendorff, Sars, Danielssen, 

 or Malm. Forbes (Mem. Geol. Surv. pp. 381 and 426) 

 hastily considered it identical with the B. ciliatum of 

 Fabricius ; his suggestion that the B. fusiforme of Bro- 

 derip (which is a true Fusus) may be u an extreme 

 form " of the same species is equally inexact. 



The following are spurious or not British : — 



B. glaciale, Linn. =22. carinatum, Phipps., " Orkney 

 Islands, Mr. Agnew, gardener to the Duchess of 

 Portland " (Donovan) ; in the Portland-sale catalogue 

 it is stated to be from Greenland, which is the true 

 habitat. Fleming's Zetlandic specimen was, I believe, 

 given to him by the captain of a whaler. 



B. Groenlandicum, Chemn., with no end of syno- 

 nyms, is one of our glacial fossils ; it does not now live 

 south of Finmark. Fabricius broached an odd idea, 

 that by means of the pallial tube (which he called a 

 cirrus) the animal was accustomed to catch hold of the 

 leaves of fuci, so as to facilitate its progress, and when 



