Germs Cyprcea. 205 



C. birida is common in the Mediterranean and part of 

 the Atlantic Ocean, ptilchra only found in the Red Sea, and 

 controversa from the East Indies and Mauritius. Mr. R. C. 

 E. Stearns {Proc. Ac. Phil., 1878, p. 399) thinks this variety 

 ■distinct, and signalises it as having been found in California. 

 Has this been confirmed ? 



C. Broderipii (Gray). 



C. 7iivosa (Broderip). 



C. vitelliis (L.) 



C. camelopardalis (Perry), C. melanostovia (Leathes). 



The reason I call attention to this quaternion is that» 

 while they are all very nearly allied to each other, two of 

 them are only distinguished by characters not seen at a 

 glance, but when seen, proving how extremes meet, while 

 C. Broderipii is one of the rarest and most beautiful of 

 known shells. It is the largest of the four, measuring over 

 3 inches in length, and is globose, the dorsal surface tinted 

 rose-colour, with brown network pattern overspread. Be- 

 neath, the teeth are long and well developed. Base pinkish. 

 Native of Madagascar. 



Six specimens are known ; of which — 

 I in National Collection, S. Kensington. 



1 formerly in Mr. Hugh Owens' Collection. 



2 in Miss Saul's Collection. 

 2 — rdispositions uncertain. 



C. vitelliis (L.) and C. nivosa (Brod.). — Both with near 

 affinities to the preceding, are yet at first sight so close to 

 each other as to appear hardly even varieties. And yet few 

 species are so distinct. In the common vitelliis a widely 

 distributed East Indian species, the pattern of pure white 

 spots is first deposited by the mantle of the animal, and 

 then the grey-brown colour is enamelled over, but thinly, 

 so as not to conceal the now slightly blurred and somewhat 

 indistinct spots. In nivosa^ on the other hand, the grey- 

 l)rown colour is first deposited, and then the next, clear cut 



