426 MURICIDiE. 



The capacious aperture, which is entirely devoid of 

 sculpture, and occupies on the average four-sevenths of the 

 ventral length, is sometimes of a rich orange colour (chiefly 

 so in the externally colourless examples, sometimes of a 

 pure porcelain white ; it is of an oval shape that is pro- 

 duced below as a broad and somewhat patulous canal that 

 bends but slightly (except in a variety which we have not 

 seen in England) to the left. The outer lip, the angle 

 formed by which with the body-whorl, is nearly a right 

 one, is more or less prominently arcuated, until nearly 

 parallel with the posterior junction point, when it some- 

 what suddenly slants, for the short remaining space, in a 

 straightish line : it is simple, acute, a little disposed to 

 expand in the more aged examples, and does not recede 

 much at the anterior extremity. The course of the inner 

 lip, though a little sinuated, is tolerably perpendicular on 

 the whole, the concavity is not profound ; the straightish 

 lower portion fills about one-third of the length. The 

 enamel is rather thickly spread on the pillar where it 

 very gradually narrows to a fine extremity. The siphonal 

 fold-like ridge is often made rugged by the coarse scale- 

 like projections which arise from the stages of increase. 

 The larger of the specimens delineated measured six inches 

 in length, and nearly three inches and a-half in breadth, 

 and a nine-whorled example, taken by Professor King, was 

 seven inches long and five broad. 



The capsules are only half an inch in diameter, are 

 convex outwardly, and concave in the inner side, coarse 

 and corrugated, and piled one upon another in a conical 

 heap, three inches or so high. " Previous to exclusion," 

 writes Dr. Johnston, " the young are perfectly formed ; 

 the eyes, tentacula, and operculum of the animal are very 

 distinct, and the shell, which is of an uniform flesh-colour, 



