276 BUCCINID.E. 



might well endeavour to emulate. What does Shake- 

 speare say of the boasted discoveries of the present age ? 



" If there be nothing new, but that, which is, 

 Hath been before, how are our brains beguil'd, 

 "Which, labouring for invention, bear amiss 

 The second burden of a former child ! " 



Purpura lapil'lus*, Linne. 



Buccinum lapilhis, Linn. S. N. p. 1202. P. lajpittus, F. & H. iii. p. 380, 

 pi. cii. f. 1-3, and (animal) pi. LL. f. 4. 



Body varying in colour from white to yellowish, with a faint 

 tinge of brown, and minutely speckled with flake-white : mantle 

 thick, with sometimes a brown margin : paUial tube short, not 

 much nor often protruded : head small : proboscis short : ten- 

 tacles conical, rather long and tapering ; the part above the 

 eye is much more slender than the lower part (which is tumid 

 and rounded), and is from one-half to one-third of the entire 

 length : eyes small, although conspicuous from their dark 

 colour, slightly raised on long and thick stalks (" ommato- 

 phori," Loven), which are amalgamated with the lower part 

 of the tentacles : foot oblong, rounded at each end, or bluntly 

 angular behind, double-edged in front, with ear-shaped corners; 

 sole divided lengthwise by a slight fold or crease : opercular 

 lobe short. 



Shell forming a short cone with a bluntly pointed base, 

 thick, opaque, nearly lustreless : sculpture, numerous flattened 

 spiral ridges, which are sometimes thread-like, or alternately 

 large and small, and always become sharper near the apex ; 

 the surface is also covered with rather close-set stria? in the 

 line of growth ; these latter are sometimes wavy where they 

 are interrupted by the spiral ridges, so as to produce a more 

 or less distinctly fimbriated appearance ; embryonic whorls 

 quite smooth and glossy ; the base is encircled by an obliquely 

 twisted keel : colour most variable, usually whitish, pale orange, 

 reddish-brown, or dark chocolate, often banded, and the base 

 stained with reddish-brown ; one specimen (from Shetland) 

 has the body-whorl white and the upper whorls marked with 

 narrow brown bands in the interstices of the ridges : spire 

 regularly but suddenly tapering ; apex blunt and rounded, 

 twisted on one side : whorls 6-7, convex, although compressed 



* A pebble. 



