362 littorinid^:. 



adult : sculpture, only the usual lines of growth, when viewed 

 by the naked eye or an ordinary lens, but if examined with a 

 high microscopical power the surface is seen to be indistinctly 

 and slightly striated in a spiral direction ; these striae are 

 wanting in full-grown specimens, which are always more or 

 less eroded in consequence of their exposure to the atmosphere 

 and sea-spray : colour chocolate or dark reddish-brown, usu- 

 ally paler or variegated by a yellowish zone at the base, some- 

 times of a greyish or lighter hue at the top of each whorl or 

 in other parts of the shell : epidermis very slight, horncolour : 

 spire rather short, sharp-pointed: whorls b-Q, somewhat 

 convex, but compressed towards the suture, so as to make that 

 part of each whorl considerably overlap the one next above it ; 

 the last occupies about two-thirds of the spire : suture narrow 

 and slight: mouth equal to nearly two-fifths of the lower 

 portion of the shell; it is acute-angled above, somewhat 

 expanded outwardly, and strengthened inside by a rim or 

 ledge; the base is more or less angulated, and in young spe- 

 cimens sharply peaked : outer lip thin : inner lip forming a 

 glazed coating over that side of the mouth : pillar thick, 

 reddish-brown or dirty white, sloping downwards in a direct 

 line for nearly its whole length, and bevelled outwards from 

 the above described rim or ledge : inside glossy, chocolate- 

 coloured or dark-brown : opermlum having three or four 

 whorls, proportionally more solid than in other species of Lit- 

 torina, horncolour, rather strongly but irregularly striated in 

 the line of growth ; the inside edge is surmounted by a rim 

 which is partly continued round the spire. L. 0*275. B. 0-225. 



Habitat : Rocks above high-water mark, on all our 

 coasts from Jersey to Shetland; local but abundant. 

 Godwin- Austen included it in his list of newer pliocene 

 shells from Sussex. Geikie has lately quoted it as fossil 

 in the undermentioned places — C( Paisley ; Kyles of 

 Bute ; Lochgilphead (common) " I suspect that there 

 has been some error here with regard either to the de- 

 termination of the species, or to this being a glacial 

 fossil; it inhabits at present the Clyde district. Ac- 

 cording to Loven, it occurs in a living state on the 

 Scandinavian coast from Kullen to Norway ; and various 



