198 Mr. Cosmo Melvill on the 



newly described C. Hungerfordii {Sowb.), C. RasJileigJiaiia 

 {Melv), C. ampJiithales {Melv.), and C. caput draconis {Alelv.) 

 which brings up the total to 189. In the collection now 

 exhibited there are about 170 species, besides varieties, and 

 several of these are type shells, notably some of those 

 formerly in the collection of Mr. J. S. Gaskoin, who for 

 years made a special study of the Cowries, and whose whole 

 series was acquired by Mr. T. Lombe Taylor, of Starston 

 Hall, Norfolk, the dispersion of whose vast stores in 1879 

 made an unusual stir in the conchological world. 



(X.) Prominence and isolation of some Species. — In na 

 other genus of shells do certain members of it take sa 

 distinctive a place ; there are, for instance, six kinds which 

 add the charms of being almost or quite unique to their 

 beauty and unusual forms. Amongst these first to be 

 noted is : 



Cyprcea Icucodon (Broderip), described in 1828, Reeve C. I. 

 f 23, and cf. Sowb. Thes. Conch., pi. iv., f 19, 20, a large 

 handsome species between three and four inches in length, 

 tawny with a few large round white spots, base tawny,, 

 teeth very strong, deeply sulcated, white. 



No locality known. This has been unique in the 

 National Collection for sixty years, and was considered by 

 Mr. Lovell Reeve to be, with C. princeps, the most valuable 

 of all yet discovered shells. A slight affinity in shape with 

 this latter, and in the arrangement of the teeth with C. 

 sidcidentata (Gray)"" may be traced, but it does not very 

 nearly approach any known species — recent or fossil, nor 

 could it be an undue development of any other kind. 



C. princeps (Gray). — This, originally described by Mr. 

 Perry^ as C. Valentia, which name has priorit);, from the 



' C. sulcidentata (Gray) is connected with C. arenosa (L.) and ventriculus 

 (L.), but differs from all except leucodon (Brod.), in its deeply channelled tooth- 

 grooves. It is a shell of some rarity. 



^ Mr. George Perry in 1811 published a large folio volume, in which many 



