114 NEPTUNEA. 



The animal has a white or yellowish white body, sometimes 

 partially speckled with black ; the sole of the foot often straw 

 color or light orange. 



Cormcall (coralline zone) to Sluihind (there found in the 



laminarian, and deep water also) ; North Sea; 

 Atldntic Coast of France. 



Kobelt lias varieties carinata and desj^ecta^ but Jeffreys con- 

 siders them distinct from this species, of more Arctic distrilnition, 

 and not found living (although fossil) in the British Isles. I 

 agree with Jeffreys' views. On the other hand, Jeffreys has the 

 fullowing varieties, viz. : alba^ ventricosa, striata^ gracilis ; thej^ 

 are merely arbitrary distinctions among forms very variable. 

 Jeffreys also enumerates montrosities, as follows : 



N. contraria, Linn. Spire reversed. (This has usually been 

 considered a distinct species, and I prefer to so regard it.) 

 Monstr. 2. acuminatum; Monstr. 3. scalarifor^me^ whorls more 

 or less detached ; Monstr. 4. cinctinn, with a sharp ridge at the top 

 or in the middle of the lower whorls, now and then bicarinated ; 

 5. sulcatum^ lower whorls furrowed in the middle, and outer lip 

 notched like a Pleurofoma ; fi. Babylonicum^ spire turreted ; t. 

 compressum^ squeezed in at the sides, mouth narrow ; 8. Vohitse- 

 ybrme, shaped like a Valuta; 9. varicosum^ the former outer lip 

 (sometimes two or three of them) persistent ; 1 0. confortum, spire 

 twisted on one side or inwards; 11. snffuUum, basal ridge con- 

 tinued to the periphery ; 12. bioperculatum, ha,Ying two opercula. 



The following information concerning this common British 

 shell I obtain from Jeffreys.* 



" This is good bait for codfish, and a favorite delicacy- of tlie 

 lower working-classes in London, At Billingsgate it is sold 

 under the name of ' almond ' or ' red whelk ;' according to Butly's 

 History of Dublin the Irish call it 'barnagh,' the tail (liver) 

 being said to be more fat and tender than a lobster. The egg- 

 cases or capsules (Vol. II, t. 7, f. 11) overlap one another in an 

 imbricated fashion, eacli being firmly attached by its base to the 

 underlying capsule ; they are deposited in clusters of from a 

 dozen to a hundred, the capsules in each cluster being equal in 

 size. Those which compose one cluster, however, are not half as 



* Brit. Conch. IV, 326. 



