INVERTEBRATE ANIMALS OF VINEYARD SOUND, ETC. 639 



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Massachusetts Bay to Labrador. Casco Bay, 6 to 50 fathoms; coin- 

 mou in the Bay of Faudy from low-water mark to 80 fathoms. Liusley 

 reports it, as J'^ corneiis, from fish-stomachs at Stouingtou, Connecticut. 

 In the Yale Museum are dead shells of this species, which have been 

 occupied by Eupaguri., found on Fire Island Beach, on the south side of 

 Long Island, by Mr. S. I. Smith. It probably inhabits the deep water 

 off Block Island. 



The dentition of this species is decidedly buccinoid. The central 

 plates are transversely oblong, deeply concave' above, with the lateral 

 angles produced ; below armed with three small, nearly equal, short teeth, 

 the central one largest, beyond which, on each side, it is concave, the outer 

 angles being a little prominent. The lateral plates are large, with an 

 outer, very strong, curved tooth, and two much smaller, slightly curved 

 ones near the inner end, the innermost being slightly the largest. 



The dentition agrees very closely with that of N. antiqua, the type 

 both of the genus Xeptunea, Bolton, 1798, and Chrysodomus, Swainson, 

 1840, but it is very different from that of Slpho Beniiclensis {S. Island- 

 icus Trosch.), which Troschel refers to the Faciolarid^e. The latter is 

 evidently the'tyi^e of a genus (^Si/j/to) very distinct from Neptunea; but 

 among the European si^ecies, gracilis, propinqua, huccinata, and the true 

 Islandica (as described by Jeffreys) are closely related to curta, and be- 

 long to the genus Meptunea, in the family Buccinidte. 



Neptunea {Xeptunella) pygm^ea. Plate XXI, fig. 115. (p. 508.) 



Fusus Islandicus, rar. pugnums, Gould, Invert, of Mass., ed. i, p. 284, fig. 199, 

 1841. Tntonimn piigmanm Stimpsou, Shells of New EugLiud, ]}. 46, 1851. 

 Fusus Triinibullu Liusley, Amer. Journal Science, ser. i, vol. xlviii, p. 28, fig. 

 1, 2, 1845 {non Gould, 1848). Fusus pygmiem Gould, Invert, of Mass., ed. ii, 

 p. 372, fig. 6:59. Neptunea {Siplio) pygnwa H. and A. Adams, Genera Recent 

 Mollnsca, vol. i, p. 81, 1858. Chrysodomus jji/gnucus Dall, Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. 

 Hist., vol. xiii, p. 242, 1870. 



Deep water off Xew Loudon and Stonington, Connecticut, northward to 

 theGulf of Saint Lawrence. Eastof Block Island, 29 fathoms, sandy mud ; 

 off Buzzard's Bay, 25 fathoms ; off" Gay Head, 19 fathoms, mud, abun- 

 dant and large; off Edgarton, 18 to 20 fathoms; Casco Bay, 10 to 40 

 fathoms, common ; Eastport, Maine, and Bay of Fnndy, low water to 

 100 fathoms (A. E. V.). Xear Saint George's Bank, 40 to 150 fathoms ; 

 east of Saint George's Bank, 430 fathoms ; and off Halifax (S. I. Smith). 



The odontophore in this species is long and slender ; the dentition is 

 buccinoid. The middle plate is small, transversely oblong, concave 

 above, below convex, with one very small central tooth ; lateral plates 

 relatively large and strong, with a large, curved outer tooth, and a 

 smaller bifid inner tooth, widely separated from the outer one. 



The peculiarities in the dentition of this species, in connection with 

 the singular wooly or velvety epidermis, indicate that this species 

 should form the type of a sub-genus, or perhaps even a distinct genus. 

 For the group I would propose the name Xeptunella. 



