OF CONCHOLOGY. 115 



Having examined many thousands of the protean little shells 

 which have received the above names, I do not feel presump- 

 tuous in referring them to a single specific designation. All 

 Californian conchologists, I believe, agree in the opinion that 

 the various forms above referred to, merge imperceptibly into 

 one another, and, in a range extending from Sitka to Cape St. 

 Lucas, we may reasonably expect to find many local variations. 

 The name gausapata may well be retained in a varietal sense 

 for the large, smooth, northern variety without a carina, but 

 which passes, by imperceptible stages, into the smaller Calif or- 

 niana, the subcarinate Hindsii and the stumpy, strongly carinate 

 carinata. The operculum, like that of Nitidella cribrai'ia, differs 

 from that of the A mphissce and Nitidella Crouldii, only in having 

 the nucleus somewhat more within the margin. It is shaped 

 like the others and has a similar callus, but has no resemblance 

 to that of Nassa, as previously described. 



Nitidella Crouldii so closely simulates some forms of this spe- 

 cies that I have been especially careful, in examining the oper- 

 cula of both, to select specimens which had been determined by 

 Dr. Carpenter as typical examples of each species. 



The nucleus of this species is minute, smooth and dark brown, 

 the apex is acuminate in perfect specimens. 



ASTYRIS TUBEROSA, Cpr. 



Amyela tuberosa, Cpr., Suppl. Rep. p ;% 66"2, 1863. 



(if all colors, red, dark brown, white, yellow, salmon, and 

 livid purple, either plain or marked with a pretty tracery of 

 brown lines. Characterized by a more or less carinated or 

 angulated appearance of the lower part of the last whorl. The 

 nucleus is white and smooth, flat on top, as if truncated, but not 

 swollen. Whorls flattened, suture hardly impressed. 



ASTYRIS AURANTIACA, n. S. 



Amyela aurantiaca, Dall, MSS. 1866. 



Shell minute, fusiform, smooth, with five gently rounded, non- 

 carinated whorls. Color generally orange yellow, semitranslu- 

 cent, and without markings, but occasionally darker, passing 

 into dark brown, or with close zigzag brown lines on the yellow 

 ground. Columella slightly arcuated, outer lip slightly sinuated, 

 hardly striate inside. No callus on the columella. Nucleus 

 subglobular, rounded above, swollen as large or larger than the 

 first whorl in most specimens. Lon. -18 in., lat. -08 in. 



Habitat, Monterey, in the sand along the wave marks, dead ; 

 Dall, seven specimens. Stones at low water, living ; Stearns 

 and Canfield. 



