Naticse, Lamellarise, and Velutinse. 45 



for the steps I have taken, by giving some account of the 

 singularly anomaloiis genera and species that compose the new 

 family, which, though often mentioned, — and some of them have 

 even fallen on good ground with respect to natural order, — have 

 not received the attention they deserve. My object is to give 

 these aberrant animals a more collective form, and improved 

 arrangement with respect to their connexion with the Muricidal 

 tribes, until better are proposed ; for in the present age we see 

 that the highest intelligences in every science are scarcely more 

 than ephemeral, — " summisque negatum stare diu." I have also 

 supplied fuller descriptions of the British species, and hope I 

 have interspersed some observations that hitherto have escaped 

 the attention of naturalists. 



Several of the species were known to Linnaeus and his followers, 

 but the older zoologists being comparatively ignorant of the 

 animals have transferred them from genera to genera, and the 

 moderns have scarcely succeeded in bringing all of them to a 

 safe anchorage. I believe that the examination of many of our 

 species will enable me perhaps to carry out some of these views. 

 I have felt a difficulty in uniting these wanderers, almost with- 

 out a home, as aberrant sections of the strict Muricidce, though 

 the animals have some of the essential organs of that family, and 

 it would be still more inconvenient to locate them in any of the 

 existing families of the Holostomata. I have considered that 

 the best plan would be, to form for the lanthina, Scalarm, Na- 

 ticee, Lamellaries, and Velutince, a family, combining the respec- 

 tive characters of the holostomatous and canaliferous divisions 

 of the Gasteropoda, as by their entire apertures they have, con- 

 ch ologically, a large affinity with the former tribe, and by the 

 retractile proboscis, malacologically, the closest alliance with the 

 Canalifera. Natm-alists must therefore either raise each of the 

 above genera to the rank of families, which at best can only have 

 couchological variations, and scarcely any very essential mala- 

 cological distinction, or deposit them for conciseness sake in a 

 neutral one, under an indifferent term, embracing the principal 

 attributes of the five genera. If the latter view is thought con- 

 venient and acquiesced in, I propose the appellation of the Pe- 

 loridce, from the Peloris of the ancients, probably a testaceous 

 animal, but whether of the holostomatous or muricidal race is 

 doubtful, and on that account more appropriate for a family of 

 hybrid and transitive pretensions. The position of the new 

 family would be intermediate with the Pyramidellidce and Muri- 

 cidce ; its genera, the Chemnitzice and Eulimee, which have also 

 an entire aperture and retractile proboscis, may be said to occupy 

 a sort of debateable ground between two of the great divisions of 

 the gasteropodan domain. 



