23 



With regard to Rostellaria rectirostris , or more properly recti- 

 rostrata, I have a few words to say before I conclude this somevvhat 

 desultorv communication. 



The animal of this genus is exactly like that of Strombus. Ihe 

 body is subcylindrical. marbled with rich bioun on the outer side, 

 and white on the inner and front side. The trunlc is subcylindrical, 

 and annulated with a centrai broad line of deep bronze-black. The 

 margins yellow with a narrow vermilion line extemally. The eyes 

 are on long cylindrical peduncles, of a deep blue with a black pupil. 

 The tentacula are subulatc, elongate, arising from the peduncle rather 

 below the eye. The foot is narrow, rather dilated in front and small 

 behind. The operculum is ovate, triangular, annular, semi-transpa- 

 rent and horny. Living in black muddy sand in thirty-one and a 

 half fathoms -n-ater. The specimen I figured was dredged on the 



coast of Borneo. ^ , . , • , 



Rostellaria has all the hablts of the Strombidcc, progressmg by 

 means of its powerful and elastic foot, \Yhich it places under the shell 

 in a bent position, ■nhen suddenly by a muscular effort it straightens 

 that orgau and rolls and leaps over and over. It is however far more 

 tiraid and suspicious than Strombus, which has a bold disposition. 



The animal of the genus Stilifer, wbich I found living on the body 

 of a starfish {Asterias) on the coast of Borneo, had two elongate 

 subulate tentacles. with the eyes sessile near the outer side of their 

 base. and a small rounded head. llie mantle is entirely enclosed and 

 covered by the thin shell, and the foot is narrow, slender, very much 

 produced beyond the head in front and scarcely extended at all be- 



The animal of this genus was described and figured in Mr. Sower- 

 by's ' Genera of Shells ' from a specimen in spirits brought home by 

 Mr. Cuming, where the fleshy part enveloping the shell m its con- 

 tracted statė was considered as the mantle. 



IMr Gray. in the Synopsis before refened to (ed. 1842, p. 60), 

 from the esamination of these figures, placed the genus in the family 

 oiNaticida, and obser^-es that " what has been called the enlarged 

 mantle appears Uke the foot ;" and the above description of the ani- 

 mal sho\vs the accuracy of Mr. Gray's conclusion, both as to the 

 proper nature of the fleshy pait and the position of the genus m the 



system. _. . , ^i i. r 



In the 8haIlow pools left by the recedmg tide on the shore ot 

 Koo-Kian-San, one of the Maiacoshima group of islands, I discovered 

 a large species of DorididcB, which appears to be the type of a new 

 genus, diflfering from all the other genera of the family in havmg the 

 vent and the gill'= which are extruded from it, situated beneath the 

 edo-e of the m'antle, which latter is exteuded beyond the circum- 

 ference of the foot, while in all the other genera, as far as I am aware 

 of, the vent and gills are situated on the mantle itself. This genus 

 may be called Hypobranchi.ea*. 



* i-TTo (#aJ), j3payx'e'« {ttranchiis pradita). Tlie specific name might be " de- 

 pressa," from its flatteued appearance. 



