COOKE : DISTRIBmiON OF PURPURA LAPILLUS. 197 



northward as far as the frontier. It is rather rare on the coast of 

 Oporto, and becomes scarce towards the south (Nobre 90). There are 

 specimens in the Oporto Museum from Foz do Douro and Le^a da 

 Palmeira (Anon. 3). I^obre found one worn example at Portimao, 

 25 miles E.N.E. of Cape St. Vincent, in Algarve, N. lat. 37° 10'. In 

 my collection, from the same spot, are included a number of specimens 

 collected by Dr. H. Gadow " at a small rock near the harbour 

 entrance". " Thence eastward," continues Dr. Gadow in a private 

 letter, " e.g. Euro and Oldhao, the coast is sandy, flat, and with 

 lagoons of muddy bottom, or protected by sandbanks; the same 

 unsuitable conditions extend right up to Cadiz. West of Portimao, 

 round Cape St. Vincent, the coast is rocky and suitable." 



At Cadiz the species does not occur. It is not found in the lists of 

 Cadiz Mollusca by Hidalgo (48) and Maxwell Smith (110), and I have 

 collected there myself without finding it. Nor does it appear to occur 

 at Tangier, where the shore conditions are wholly suitable. It seems 

 reasonable, therefore, to conclude that Portimao in Algarve is the 

 southern limit of the distrihution of this species. Specimens from 

 this locality are dwarfed but compact, mostly rich chocolate to brown, 

 or blue-grey throughout, sometimes banded with white, mouth large, 

 last whorl very large in proportion to rest of shell, sculpture none, or 

 a few indistinct concentric rings. My largest specimen measures no 

 more than '8 in. in length. 



P. lapillus has been occasionally, but, it would appear, mistakenly 

 reported from the Mediterranean. Locard (71) remarks: " Le 

 P. lapillus est indifjue dans la Mediterrannee a. Nice par llisso et 

 k Cannes par M. Dautzenberg. Mais M. de Monterosato (Conch. 

 Medit., art. prin., p. 4) met en doute cette assertion." Hidalgo (45) 

 notes : " ? Minorca (Ramis)." Weiukauff (123) does not include it 

 in his list. Kobelt (59) and G. 0. Sars (105) omit the Mediterranean 

 in their list of localities. 



K. T. Lowe (73) includes P. lapillus in "A list of the shells 

 observed ... at Mogador ... in April, 1859". After referring 

 to the fact that Adanson (2) in his History of Senegal includes 

 P. lapillus in his list, Lowe continues : " The abundant occurrence of 

 a dwarf state or variety of this shell at Mogador renders it not at all 

 improbable that it may be also found still further down tlie coast, and 

 therefore possibly in Senegal. Fresh observations to decide this point 

 would therefore be extremely interesting." M. Paul Pallary has the 

 credit of resolving what would otherwise have been the inexplicable 

 difficulty, that P. lapillus should occur at Mogador, more than 

 400 miles south of its southernmost European locality, without at the 

 same time occurring on the intervening coasts. No search along 

 the Moroccan shores has revealed tlie presence of P. lapillus, 

 although they are in many places favourable for its occurrence. 

 There can be little doubt that the shell described by M. Pallary (95) 

 as Ocinebrina purpuroidea \% the so-called dwarf form of P. lapillus, 

 said by Mr. Lowe to be common at Mogador. The species, which 

 might easily be mistaken for a small Purpura, occurs also at Rabat 

 and Tangier. I noticed a single specimen in the McAndrew Collection 



