DEFRANCIA. 371 



when observed, the tail being- sometimes sharply pointed, and 

 at other times bluntly angular or even rounded in the same 

 individual. 



Shell having the last whorl produced into a rather long 

 beak, of a thin texture between the ribs, semitransparent, 

 partially glossy (especially the fissural groove and the inter- 

 stices of the ribs, which frequently are glistening) : sculpture, 

 longitudinal and spiral ribs, nearly equally prominent, and 

 forming by their intersection oblong spaces in a transverse di- 

 rection ; the points of junction are prickly ; of the longitu- 

 dinal ribs there are usually 15 or 16 on the body-whorl, and 

 one or two less on the penultimate whorl, the number dimin- 

 ishing in that proportion upwards ; they extend to the base, 

 but never cross the fissural groove ; the spiral ribs are slighter, 

 15 or 16 on the body-whorl, 5 on the next, 4 on the next, 

 and so on ; sometimes a very fine intermediate stria is obser- 

 vable between some of the spiral ribs ; the third whorl from 

 the top, and part of the second whorl are bluntly keeled by 

 the first spiral rib, and all the apical whorls are exquisitely 

 reticulated ; the surface is faintly marked with microscopic 

 and distant lines of growth, but not reticulated : colour yel- 

 low, irregularly mottled or streaked with purplish-brown; 

 apex yellowish-brown : spire long and turreted ; apex very 

 small, slender, and distinct : whorls 9-10, convex ; the last 

 occupies three-fifths of the shell : suture deep : mouth as in 

 the last species, but not so much contracted ; length nearly 

 half that of the shell : canal rather long, wide, more 

 or less reflected at its extremity ; notch obliquely rounded, 

 not conspicuous outside : outer lip curved ; inside thickened, 

 and fluted by about 10 tooth-like ridges ; edge sharp, crenel- 

 lated by the spiral ribs : fissure deep, broad, and incurved ; its 

 former course is distinctly traceable : inner lip slight and re- 

 tired : pillar long, in some cases nearly straight, and in others 

 fiexuous. L. 0-5. B. 0-2. 



Yar. formosa. Pure snow-white, or with a slight tinge of 

 fleshcolour or pink, and occasionally encircled by a pale band 

 below the periphery ; spire elongated ; whorls tumid. Man- 

 gelid purpurea, var. asperrima, F. & H. iii. p. 467, pi. cxiii. 

 f. 5 (not Fusus asperrimus of Brown) . 



Habitat: Coralline zone,, at Guernsey (J. G. J.); 

 Plymouth (Jordan) ; Falmouth (Hockin) ; Birterbuy 



