280 MOLLUSCA. 
sion, margined white. Siphon short, very thick, with a short, flat- 
tened, conical process on each side of the base. Head and siphon 
coloured like the foot in similar zones, but the tubercles are nearly 
white instead of yellow, and much smaller than on the foot. [3. p. c.] 
Inhabits the region of Cape Horn. 
Much confusion seems to have arisen between this and the preced- 
ing species, on account of their general form being similar, their 
colouring still more so, and from their inhabiting the same localities. 
Were the shells alone compared, they might be regarded as varieties 
of the same species; but that they are distinct species, I think Mr. 
Couthouy has satisfactorily shown, by the essential differences in the 
form and colouring of the animals. The mark by which Lamarck 
distinguishes V. Magellanica from V. ancilla, viz., the number of folds 
on the columella, is of no validity, since this number varies in both 
species. Relying rather upon the form, which is abbreviated and 
somewhat coronated in the first, slender and with simple convex 
whorls in the latter, I should be inclined to coincide in the synonymy 
as given by Kiener and Sowerby, rather than in that of Deshayes. 
Figure 358, dorsal view of the shell, and the animal expanded. 
Meto Broperipit (Gray), Griffith’s Cuvier, pl. 26. KiENER; 
Iconog., pl. 6. Melo regius, BropErip. Sowersy; Thes. Conch., pl. 
83, f. 26, 27. 
AnitmaL very large, oblong, twice the length and breadth of the 
shell. Colour purplish, verging to orange at the edge, and veined 
with fawn-colour, beneath ochre-yellow. Foot advancing before the 
head, bilobate in front, projecting behind the shell, obtuse at the point. 
Head trilobate in front; tentacles short, subulate, whitish at tip; eyes 
black and large, at the outer base of the tentacle. Siphon long and 
tapering, with a process from each margin, where it issues from the 
shell, resembling a pair of cow’s horns; pale at the edges, and bluish 
within. Mantle simple, lemon-coloured at the edge, with a transverse 
banding of purplish-brown. 
Obtained at the Straits of Balaback, China Sea. 
