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NOTE OX MITRA OBSCURA, IIUTTOX. 

 By Henry Suter. 



Read \2th March, 1897. 



Srit James Hector, Director of the Colonial Museum, "Welliufiton, 

 "with great kindness lent me Captain Hutton's type-specimen of Mitra 

 ohscura, which enahles me to give here an emended description and 

 a figure of the species. 



Mitra. ouscura, Hutton. 



Hutton, Catalogue of Marine Mollusca of New Zealand, 1873, p. 19. 

 Hutton, Manual of the New Zealand Mollusca, 1880, p. 60. 



Shell ovate-conical, whorls shouldered, those of the spire longi- 

 tudinally plicate, about twenty costaj on the penultimate whorl ; on the 

 body-whorl the plications become gradually fainter as they approach 

 the peristome, whilst between them fine lines of growth are visible. 

 Three to four distinct revolving lines below the suture on the last 

 three whorls, extending indistinctly over the whole of the second to 

 fourth whorl. Whorls seven. Ease of last spirally striated. Aperture 

 nan'ow, columella with four plaits, the basal one small; outer lip 

 angled above, thick, smooth (basal part broken off) ; interior purplish. 

 Colour blackish-brown, white spots predominating on the first five 

 whorls ; the last two whorls with large, sometimes confluent, white 

 spots below the suture. The whole of the body-whorl is dotted 

 with minute whitish spots. Hase fuscous. Length 16, breadth 8 mm. 

 Aperture : height 9, breadth 3-5 mm. Angle of spire 60°. 



Mitra (ihscura, Hutton. 



ITah. — Bay of Islands (Colonial Museum). 



This species is nearest to Mitra pica, Eecve, from Tasmania, 



