66 Mr. A. IT. Cooke on Vulsella. 



Lamarck inquires, " An Chemn. Conch. 6, tab. ii. f. 8,_ 9 ?" 

 I have already shown reasons for thinking that this ligure 

 represents V. myt'iUna. 



15. Vulsella hi'ans, Lamarck (Anim. sans Vert. ed. 2, 

 vol. vii. p. 2). 



Hah. Indian Ocean? (La??iarc^). 



Here again Reeve has come to complete grief in his iden- 

 tification of the Lamarckian species. That author, by his 

 references to Lister (tab. 1055. fig. 10), to Gualtieri (tab. 

 90 h), and to Chemnitz (tab. 2. fig. 10), had made it abun- 

 dantly clear that his V. hi'ans was nothing more than V. 

 linqiilata on a slightly smaller scale. Yet lieeve, with these 

 references before him, and undeterred by the fact that La- 

 marck gave 58 to 60 millim. as the measurement of his type, 

 figures a thick stumpy shell, which actually measures less than 

 his idea o( spongiarum, to which Lamarck assigns 44 millim. 

 as the length. 



16. Vulsella frita, Reeve (Conch. Icon, td sup. pi. ii. fig. 17). 



Hah. Red Sea {Eeeve) , Suez {Issel). 



Only those who have seen the type of this shell (it is in the 

 Brit. Mus.) can realize to what a depth species-makers can 

 descend. Here we have a wretched beach- worn lump, which 

 looks as if it had been at the bottom of the sea for 500 years, 

 and had then been rejected because the sea was ashamed to 

 keep it any longer ! No wonder that it is " a more solid 

 species than usual, with no perceptible indication of crenu- 

 lated scales." One of the many forms of spongiarum, Lara. 



17. Vulsella ovata, Lamarck (Anim. sans Vert. ed. 2, 

 vol. vii. p. 268). 



BenieUa dihUita, Swainson, Malac. p. 38G, fig. 127. 



Vuhella ovata, Hanley, Recent Shells (the only Vulsella figured). 



Hah. Seas of New Holland (Lamarck). 



Reeve has not figured this species, but has replaced it by 

 his tasmam'ca. 1 regard ovata, then, as the Australian form 

 of spongiarum. 



18. Vulsella Nuttalln, Conrad (Journ. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philad. 

 vii. p. 257, t. XX. fig. 10). 



Hah. Fv'iencW J Ib. [Conr.). 



" Very irregular, with concentric lamellar striaj near the 

 beaks ; cavity of the interior deeply concave towards the hinge, 

 bounded at the other extreme by a concentric ridge, tlie rest 

 of the inner surface obliquely divided lengthwise by an obtuse 

 y[\,- l_i. Possibly a distorted specimen." 1 take these 



