132 Notice of several species of Shells. 



1 laid before the Lyceum, or a former occasion, a suite of Spe- 

 cimens, showing that the Cyprtca lota and C spurca were the 

 same species ; the former, which are white, being the decorti- 

 cated specimens of the latter, which are yellow and spotted, 

 When this species arrives at maturity it is less than in its 

 younger state, but more thick, solid, and extended at the base, 

 In this state the outer coat, which contains the color, is very 

 thin, and can easily be detached, leaving the polish nearly or 

 quite as brilliant as before, and the shell perfectly white, ex- 

 cept a row of impressed hollow dots round the margin, in 

 which the original yellow remains. We have this species in 

 «very stage of the alteration, from the cracking of the yellow 

 enamel, to the completely white specimens. It is probable 

 that several other species, as ihey now stand in the books, will 

 prove to be merely varieties of their congeners. But so long 

 as form, color, and surface are made the distinguishing charac- 

 teristics of shells, we must continue to describe separately each 

 of those that are, in these respects, materially different. For 

 this reason, I have determined on a new description of the two 

 following beautiful shells. They are either undescribed, or 

 imperfectly described in the books, and therefore require a 

 new description, to render them intelligible. They are both 

 oriental, and might long since have been submitted to the Ly- 

 ceum, but for a desire to examine with all due care the seventh 

 volume of the great work of Lamarck, entitled Histoire JVa« 

 iurelle des Animaux sans Vertbbres. 



SPECIES. 



1. Cypr^a maculata. Spotted Cowry. PL IX. Fig. 1. 



Shell ovate, gibbous ; back chesnut with white 

 spots; base dilated; margins thickened and spotted 

 with dark brown. 



