378 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Oct 



whorl ; but they vary considerably in the distance apart, in different 

 specimens. Sometimes the primary ridges become much more nu- 

 merous, and are unequal, — alternately larger and smaller. Secondary 

 ridges somewhat variable in size, but uniformly distributed over 

 the primary ridges and grooves, — about six to eight to each ridge 

 and its corresponding groove. The striation and grooving varies 

 much in prominence, but the normal characteristics and relative 

 proportion can always be traced, even in specimens somewhat 

 worn. Aperture nearly one-half as long as the shell ; columellar 

 lip not incurved or very little excavated into the whorl ; columella 

 usually projecting beyond the level of the anterior part of the outer 

 lip. Periostraca ciliated; hair-like processes long in good half- 

 grown specimens, longest in those specimens which have less pro- 

 minent folds and striae. On some specimens the periostraca is 

 smooth, or scarcely ciliated. 



Operculum oblong-oval, with the nucleus very near to the outer 

 margin. 



Length, 4.1; breadth, 2.15 inch, from a specimen from the east 

 coast of England. 



The differences between this and the B. undulatum will be 

 noticed under that species. 



As an existing species, the Buccinum undatum has a more 

 restricted geographical range than most others of the genus, being 

 found only on the Western coasts of Europe, from Southern Nor- 

 way to Portugal. * Like its intimate representative, the B. un- 

 dulatum, it does not extend into the Arctic regions, and is entirely 

 wanting in the North Pacific fauna. Certain Asiatic shells, referred 

 to it by Middendorff, belong properly to other species, though much 

 resembling this in some of their characters. The species of Buc- 

 cinum when appearing under diseased, abnormal or imperfect 

 conditions, are very apt to simulate each other. 



The Buccinum undatum is reported to occur in the pliocene and 

 pleistocene tertiaries of many localities in Europe. It will require, 

 however, much more critical study to determine whether the shells 

 so occurring are correctly referred to this species. There is little 

 doubt however that some of the shells found in the English crag 

 belong to it. 



* Moerch includes the undatum in his list of Greenland shells, but 

 refers to Middendorff's " Beitrage zur einer Malacologia Rossica," p. 482 ? 

 pi. iv, fig. 3. This figure seems rather to represent the undulatum. 



