OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 69 



shall discern the law which pervades all nature and reads it so 

 that the anomaly of to-day should be the confirmatory fact of 

 to-morrow. 



In keeping with the above fact we have lAttorina ziczac, 

 which is a shell very much like our L. ccerulescens except that it 

 is streaked with undulating red lines. This is a common form in 

 some of the West Indian Islands, at Monte Christo in West 

 Columbia, and is not uncommon on Kangaroo Island in South 

 Australia, and on other parts of the South Australian coast. My 

 own idea is that it is only a variety of L. ccerulescens. I do not 

 assert this positively, but I am inclined to think it. The 

 extraordinary variations to which shells are subject in the matter 

 of color makes one prepared for anything. TroclwcocJilea australis 

 is variegated light green and white, dark olive and yellow, 

 reddish brown and yellow, and finally a uniform dull black 

 or greenish black. T. constricta is dull white, dull yellow 

 pale flesh color, or streaked a bright green and white, 

 red and yellowish green, neutral tint and white, or black 

 and white. Then the shape of these variegations are just as 

 diverse. The streaks are sometimes three or four, or they are 

 narrow pointed and numerous, or they are very fine zigzag lines, 

 the angles of the zigzags being very acute and the lines long or 

 few and obtuse, &c., &c. In fact, within given limits, there is no 

 form or pattern of color that might not find representatives in 

 these most variable shells. If color then be the only difference, 

 I think we should claim L. ziczac too as a synonym for our 

 Littorina, but the animals I have not examined and have only 

 imperfectly examined the shell. 



Next to L. ccerulescens, for such I shall always now designate 

 our common coast perry winkle, we have a species called Littorina 

 pyramidalis, by Quoy. (Voy. de V Astrolabe, vol. 2, p. 482, pi. 33, 

 jig. 12-15). He states that " it was found in Jervis Bay, and is 

 remarkable for its pyramidal form, with the last whorl much 

 swollen, and seems a base from which the spire rises abruptly." 

 It is rough girdled with a string of tubercles on the spire, and 

 which is doubled on the summit of the last whorl. These 

 tubercles are prominent, round and blunt. It shows some 



