334 VELUTIXID^. 



Oeiius VELUTINA, Blaixv. 1819. 



Shell small, thin, sub-globose, composed of two rapidly enlarging 

 volutions ; aperture large, sub-ovate, lip thin, not joined behind ; 

 usually covered with a velvety or powdery epidermis. 



Velutina haliotoidea. 



Fig. 159. 



Shell obliquely ovate, very fragile, consisting principally of the last of three 

 whorls; epidermis brown, rising into regular, equitlistant, spiral folds. 



Helix Itevifjafa, Lin. and English aiitliors. — Donovan, Brit. Shells, ii. t. 105. — 3Ion- 



TAGU, Test. Brit. 382. 

 Helix haliotoidea, Fabr. (non Lin.) Fauna Grcenl. No. 387. 

 Bulla velutina, Mullek, Zool. Dan. iii. t. 101, figs. 1 -4. 

 Velutina capuloidea, Blainv. Malacol. pi. 42, fig. 4. 



Velutina rupicola, Conrad, Journ. Acad. Nat. Sc. vi. 2GG, pi. 11, figs. 17, 18. 

 Galericulum lievi<jatum, Brown, Concli. of Great Brit. &c. pi. 33, figs. 35, 38. 

 Velutina Irevifjala, Gould, Inv. 1st ed. 241, fig. 159. — Dk Kay, N. Y. Moll. 1.54, pi. 23, 



fig. 254. — Reeve, Conch. Syst. ii. 17, fig. 124. 

 Velutina haliotoides, Stuipson, Check Lists, 5. 



Shell obliqtiely-ovate or ear-shaped, very thin and fragile, trans- 

 parent, flesh-colored, or reddish-white ; whorls three, the last ex- 

 tremely large and distended, the others very small, turned 

 to one side, and partly sunken within the last ; suture 

 distinct ; surface faintly marked with the lines of growth, 

 and covered with a thick brownish epidermis, which is 

 raised at close and regular intervals into fringe-like ridges 

 revolving round the shell ; aperture ample, rounded-oval ; 

 lip extremely thin, but thickening a little as it rises upon 

 the body of the shell ; the two lips uniting behind by a plate of enamel 

 crossing the body of the shell, which, in mature shells, renders the 

 aperture nearly circular ; interior smooth and shining. Diameter 

 about four tenths of an inch ; length a little more. 



Found among the sea-weed on the sea-beach, and in the stomachs 

 of fishes. Mr. Conrad states, on the authority of Dr. Pickering, 

 that it dwells on rocks, with habits like the Patella. But the fact 

 of so fragile a shell being usually found entire in the stomachs of 

 fishes rather forbids this idea. It could not be detached by them 

 without being fractured. 



This shell, as hitherto found, is extremely fragile, seeming to 



