372 Trans. Acad. Sci. of St. Louis. 



authentic specimens of occa and hundreds of scolopax, and I 

 am sure that they are quite distinct. Occa possesses two 

 intervarical tubercles, while scolopax is quite smooth even in 

 the very young specimens. The brown bands are wanting in 

 occa and the spines are strongly curved upwards, while in the 

 former species they are almost straight. The sizes are also 

 quite different, scolopax being six or seven inches in length, 

 while occa seldom exceeds three inches. The outer lip of the 

 latter species is toothed (scolopax is not), and the canal is 

 almost destitute of spines. All of the specimens I have seen 

 were from China. 



MuREX Macgillivrayi Dohrn. 



Murex Macgillivrayi Dohrn, Zool. Proc, p. 203, 1862. 



It is doubtful if this species will prove synonymous with 

 Murex scolopax, as some authors have contended. Mr. E. A. 

 Smith says of it : '♦ It is a yellowish shell, exhibiting three pur- 

 plish-brown bands on the body-whorl, of which the uppermost 

 is the broadest, being situated around the broadest part of 

 the volution. The spiral lirae are fine, reddish, in some exam- 

 ples more deeply colored than in others, and terminating at 

 the margin of the labrum in red dots, which fall between 

 lobe-like prolongations." (Zoology, Voyage of the Alert, 

 p. 44.) 



This is a stumpy little species with but a single well-devel- 

 oped intervarical node and short, slightly curved spines. 

 From scolopax it is distinguished by its shorter spines and 

 more nodulous surface, and from occa by the greater propor- 

 tionate width of the body-whorl, the fewer, straighter spines, 

 and the three purplish bands on the bodj'-whorl. The orig- 

 inal specimens were dredged off Lizard Island, Torres Strait, 

 Australia, in 29 fathoms. 



Murex TRIBULUS var. nigrospinosus Reeve. 



Murex nigrospinosus Reeve, Zool. Proc, p. 88, 1845. Conch. Icon. sp. 79. 



This species seems to be but little understood hj most 

 conchologists, for I have received it under at least half a 

 dozen different names and have seen it wrongly named in 

 almost every collection I have examined. It is most fre- 



