NATICA. 



343 



Natica clausn, Broderip and Sowerbt, Zool. Journ. iv. 3G0 (1829). — Godt.d, Inv. 

 1st cfl. 238, fig. 167. — Gray, Zool. of Eeechey's Voy. 13G, pi. 37, %. C, and pi. 34, 

 fig, 3. -De Kay, N. Y. Moll. 122, pi. 7, fig. 150. — Stimpson, Check Lists, 5. 



Natica consolidata, Couthouy, Bost. Journ. Nat. Hist. ii. 89, pi. 3, %. U. — Piulippi, 

 Abbild. pi. 1, fig. 11. 



Natica borcalis, Beck (not Gray), teste Lovi;N. 



Shell small, sub-globular, surface of a dim lustre, marked by striae 

 of growth only ; color from a livid-white to dark reddish-brown, 

 those of the latter tint exhibiting conspicuously a zone of 

 the former color at the base ; epidermis thin, bony, brown- 

 ish horn color ; whorls four or five, tumid, but a portion 

 near the sutures is slightly depressed ; spire slightly ele- 

 vated, obtuse ; suture well-defined ; aperture oval, un- 

 usually wide behind ; outer lip sharp, thickened and ^ ^^'^ 

 rounded as it ascends to the umbilicus, which is com- 

 l^letcly consolidated by an ivory-white, shining callus ; on the whorl 

 the callus is thin, but a free deposit of it within the angle firmly sui> 

 ports the junction of the lip to the whorl, a zone of which calcareous 

 deposit also surrounds the umbilical region ; throat white ; opercu- 

 lum calcareous, bluish-white. Length, twelve twentieths of an inch ; 

 breadth, eleven twentieths of an inch. 



Taken alive from the stomachs of fishes, plentifully. Cape Cod to 

 Grand Manan (Sfimpson) ; fossil at Beauport and Montreal (Daw- 

 son) ; Halifax ( Willis) ; northwest coast of Greenland (Hayes) ; 

 Canada (Bell). 



This species is readily distinguished from all others of our coast 

 by its bony operculum, and by its small umbilicus, into which just 

 enough of white callus seems to have been crowded to fill it ac- 

 curately. 



Mr. Sowerby, on actual comparison, declares this to be his N. 

 clausa; and, as his description was published several years prior to 

 that given l)y Mr. Couthouy, his name must take precedence. Mr. 

 Sowerby states it to be nearly an inch in diameter ; whereas the 

 dimensions above given exceed those of the specimens usually found 

 with us. But, as it is evidently an Arctic shell, Mr. Sowerby's 

 specimens having l)ecn brought from Melville's Island, and I have 

 seen one from the Banks quite as large as those he mentions, I 

 insert also the name given to it by Beck, on the authority of Dr. 

 Lovcii. 



