MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. 149 



young shell of (in all) three and a quarter turns, perfectly fresh, affords the 

 following notes. 



Color. — The beginning of the nucleus livid purple ; the second whorl (which 

 is post-embryonic) pale waxen white ; the rest of the shell waxen white with 

 five series of rectangular dark purple-brown spots ; two other series begin on 

 the last half-whorl ; the spots, at first angular, become rounded at the corners ; 

 throat, plaits, and siphonal fasciole of varying pale shades of salmon-color; 

 epidermis very thin, smooth, very pale brown. 



Sculpture. — Embryonic part of the shell finely granulous and with a slightly 

 irregular surface, its initial point rounded and folded in laterally ; next half-turn 

 polished, finely spirally striate; then small narrow longitudinal ribs begin to 

 appear, which are most developed on the third whorl and begin to die out at 

 the end of that whorl. These when most developed extend entirely across 

 the whorl, their centres a little more than a millimeter apart, on the average. 

 There are in this specimen about twenty-four well-developed ribs, and a num- 

 ber more or less incomplete or obsolete. They are, on the body of the whorl, 

 crossed by fine threads, more prominent in the interspaces between the ribs, and 

 on the anterior part by about ten stouter threads, which ride over the ribs and 

 reticulate them ; these threads, however, become obsolete on the siphonal fas- 

 ciole. The pillar has four strong plaits on its posterior half; they increase in 

 size, from in front backward. The length of the shell is 23.0 ; the length of 

 the last whorl, 19.0; the maximum diameter of the shell, 12.0 mm. The form 

 of the nuclear (embryonic) part is globose, with the initial point rounded and 

 slightly inflated, or protruding laterally from the general orb of the nucleus. 



From the appearance of the nucleus in these forms of the genus I am im- 

 pressed with the idea that the earliest shell substance, under which a shelly nu- 

 cleus is secreted, is soft and cuticular, and that this protoconch is lost, perhaps 

 while still in the ovicapsule. In this respect th6y differ strongly from the 

 true Volutes typified by V. musica, which look as if their regularly coiled nu- 

 cleus was shelly from the outset. Another point is worthy of attention, and 

 that is that the young shells appear to show the plaits much more characteris- 

 tically and normally than do the adults, especially in the section which follows 

 (Aurinia). It should also be noted that the characters of the nucleus cannot 

 be as well studied in the adult shell as in the very young, for the shelly matter 

 of and about the nucleus seems softer than that secreted by the adult, and all 

 the characteristic features are liable to be worn away, leaving a smooth mammil- 

 lary tip which might readily be taken as normal. It would seem that the 

 Volutes, as they grow, rapidly fill the cavity of the nucleus with solid shell, 

 from which the original surface is in adults often entirely worn away, without 

 appearing denuded to the observer. 



It is perhaps worth mentioning that a very intelligent waterman with whom 

 I cruised on the west coast of Florida, and who had found a living Scaphella 

 junonia on the beach after a heavy storm, insisted that it had an operculum. 

 He cleaned the shell and sold it to a tourist, but did not preserve the oper- 

 culum, which he alleged resembled that of Fulgur, but was proportionally 



