294 INVERTEBRATA OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



Two shells answering to the preceding description were furnished 

 me from the cabinet of Dr. Prescott, of Lynn, as taken from fish 

 brought to Phillips's Beach. I had some little hesitation in admitting 

 them as native shells, supposing they must have been accidentally 

 mingled with Massachusetts shells. But I am now disposed to regard 

 it as another of the shells belonging to both Atlantic shores. I take it 

 to be the M. muricdtus, of Montagu, from whose figure our specimens 

 differ only in wanting the thickened outer lip, a character which age 

 would probably produce. I may, however, be deceived on both these 

 points. It is readily distinguished by its long, straight beak, which 

 brings it among the true Fusi. 



Genus PYRULA, Lam. 



Shell pear-shaped, without varices, broad at the spire, and taper- 

 ing forwards to form a long, straight beak ; aperture longer than 

 the spire, broad behind ; pillar twisted. 



Py'rula canalicula ta. 



Shell large, pear-shaped, covered with revolving lines, and a 

 hispid epidermis ; lower lohorl tumid, ending in a long canal, a 

 nodular keel crowns the flattened summit of each whorl, and there is 

 a deep and broad channel at the suture. 



Figure 206. 

 State Coll., No. 23. Soc. Cab., No. 317. 



Murex canaliculktus, Lin ; Syst. JVat., (12th ed.) 1222, No. 555. Gmelin ; 3544, 

 No. 65. GuALT. ; Test., t. 47, f. A. Martini; Conch., iii. t. 66, f. 742, 743. 

 Lister ; Conch., t. 878, f. 2. Knorr ; Vergn., i. t. B. 6, f. 4. 



Pj''n]la canaliculata, Brug.; Encyc. M6th., 436, f. 3. Lam.; ^n. sans Vert., 

 (1st. ed.) vii. 138. Adams; Bost. Journ. JVat. Hist., ii. 269. 



Py'rula spirata, Kiener; Species, pi. 10, f. 1. 



Shell large, rather thin, pear-shaped ; pale fawn-color, coarsely 

 marked with revolving lines ; composed of about six turreted 

 whorls, the last very large and tumid above, gradually diminishing 

 downward, and terminating rather abruptly in a long, nearly 

 straight canal or beak ; a nodulous, beaded cord or keel surrounds 

 the most prominent part of each whorl, behind which it is abruptly 

 flattened ; at the suture is a broad and deep channel, so that the 

 upper whorls are composed of an upright portion, and a nearly 



