CONCHYLIA— D/T/IF/2.4. 6. 27 



Dillwyn, Descript. Catal. p. 156. 



Turton, Conch. Diet. p. 43. 

 Cuneus foliatus. Da Costa, Brit. Conch, p. 204, tab. 15, fig. 6, 



left hand. 

 Mus. nost. From rocks in Torbay. 



Shell half an inch long, and three quarters of an inch broad, 

 brownish-white, generally of an oblong or oval shape, but varying 

 much in its outline, being sometimes truncate at the anterior 

 end, and sometimes rounded, with rather distant thin transverse 

 plates or foliations, which reflect a little, and marked with regu- 

 lar close longitudinal striae between them ; the anterior end mostly 

 gaping, rarely nearly closed : inside white, with frequently a 

 chocolate blotch at one end, with the margin plain: hinge near 

 one end, ■ ■ 



From the varieties in their figure Lamarck has instituted several 

 species, and has even placed it in the genus Venerupis : but the 

 teeth of this tribe are essentially different, approaching more to 

 the Venus, being usually connivent at their base and divaricate 

 at their tips ; whereas the Venerupis has the teeth long and 

 slender, somewhat curved backwards, and all parallel and equi- 

 distant. 



What ideas of contempt Linne had attached to this shell when 

 he denominated it Irus, it would now be useless to enquire ; 

 perhaps from its solitary confinement in rocks, like Diogenes in 

 his tub, or from the meagerness of its colors. Irus was the pander 

 of Penelope's suitors, and whom Ulysses upon his return killed 

 y/Wki his fist; so beggarly, that like Job, his name became pro- 



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