OF NORTHUMBERLAND AND DURHAM. 63 



4. F. GRACILIS, Da Costa. 



Murex corneus, Mont. Test. Brit. 258. 



Fusus Islandicus, " Martini," King in Ann. Nat. Hist, xviii. 

 246. 



In tlie coralline and deep-water zones, frequent. The variety 

 from deep water is more ventricose than the common form, and 

 has the epidermis thinner, smoother, and sometimes of a reddish 

 colour. The shell figured by Captain Brown]^in his "Illustrations 

 of the Recent Conchology of Great Britain," t. 6, £ 11, 12, found 

 by Sir W. C. Trevelyan, Bart., at Seaton, appears to be an un- 

 usually short specimen of this variety. 



Much confusion has arisen in the name of this species from 

 the circumstance of Linnaeus having included more than one shell 

 in his Murex corneus; but as it is now agreed that the name 

 should belong to the Mediterranean shell (Fusus lignarms of 

 Lamarck), and being of opinion that our species is not the Fusus 

 Islandicus of Chemnitz, to which it has lately been referred, we 

 follow Professor Loven in adopting Da Costa's name, the earliest 

 undisputed appellation. 



5. F. PROPiNQUus, n. s. 



Shell fusiform, white, covered with a brown epidermis, striated 

 spirally j the striae rather variable, but generally deep and dis- 

 tant on the upper whorls, more closely set on the lower, and 

 often rising into ridges toAvards the base of the shell. Whorls 8 

 flattish, or very slightly convex, and a little tumid above at the 

 suture ; they are broader in proportion to their height than in 

 the last species, and consequently the spire is a little less pro- 

 duced. The nucleus, forming the apex of the shell, consists of 

 two or three very small whorls, the first very little raised, and 

 only to be seen from above ; the apex is rather slender, not 

 mammillated, and generally stained of a ferruginous colour ; 

 aperture oval, rather contracted, and ending in a short canal of 

 moderate width, a little bent towards the left side ; outer lip 

 thin ; pillar smooth, a little arched inwards in the centre, and 

 produced in old shells into an obtuse rounded angle towards the 

 entrance of the canal. Length 1^ in., breadth ^ in. 



