106 CONTRIBUTIONS 
have two specimens of a fossil shell from France, so closely 
resembling our species, that it might be doubted if there 
be propriety in making ours a new species. It is, how- 
ever, a larger shell, and has little or no umbilicus. It 
came to me without a name, and I cannot find a descrip- 
tion of it in any of the works to which I have access. It 
has no doubt been described. It may be Natica sigare- 
tina, quoted by M. Deshayes in his Tertiary Tables? I 
have also a recent species, which I do not know to be de- 
scribed, and which I think came from New Holland, so 
like to these fossil species, that it would be difficult to dis- 
criminate between them, were it not in possession of a 
much larger umbilicus. In the specimens of striata in my 
cabinet, I observe much difference in the striee. In some of 
them, these striz are alternately larger and smaller; some- 
times they run two or three together; in the latter case, 
the surface might properly be said to be grooved. I do not 
consider these differences sufficient to create new species 
unless accompanied by difference of form. 
N. parva. Plate 4. Fig. 89. 
Description. Shell subfusiform, smooth; substance of 
the shell thin; spire produced and pointed; columella 
thickened above; outer lip sharp; umbilicus small ; 
whorls five, flattened above ; mouth semi-lunate, rather 
more than half the length of the shell. 
Length .4, Breadth 5-20ths, of an inch. 
Observations. The spire of this species is more pro- 
duced than any I know. The umbilicus is remarkably 
