120 



recurved, now elongated and straiglit ; lohorls generally ridged 

 and tubercled, rarelg smooth ; columella plaited, plaits corn- 

 pressed, one to jive inches in number ; epidermis horny or 

 fibrous. 



Apart from any consideration of the animal^ the Turhinellce. appear 

 at first sight to be a compound of Valuta and Murex, the shell having the 

 columella plaited in a manner resembling the former genus^ whilst in 

 general aspect it approaches rather to the latter. Linnseus referred some 

 species to one group^ some to the other ; but a comparison of the shells 

 with those of Fusiis and Fasciolaria will show a remarkable affinity passing 

 into Murex, wliich is fully confirmed by the similarity in the animals of 

 these genera. 



Though comparatively limited in species, the TiirhinellcB are widely dis- 

 similar in general appearance ; some are short and pear-shaped, and others 

 elongated and fusiform ; aU are characterised by a heavy, soHd growth, 

 with considerable depth of colour, and are divisible into five well-defined 

 sections, of which the T. pyrum, cornigcra,* infundihukiw, polygona, and 

 nassatida, may be regarded as types. The columellar plaits are irregular 

 both in number and development, varying from a transverse to the oblique 

 growth noticed in Fasciolaria. 



As a rare species of the first group above mentioned, the T.fusus in the 

 British Museum is worthy of notice; of the second, the T. muricata, 

 castus, and cassidiformis are fine examples ; of the third, the T. lanceolata 

 is an elegant and rare instance ; and among the rarities verging upon the 

 fourth and fifth groups may be noticed the T. vexillum and vexillulum, the 

 T. Australiensis, the beautiful T. pristnatica, which on being immersed in 

 water throws out a delicate iridescent lustre, and two beautifully painted 

 species, collected by Sir Edward Belcher, during the recent voyage of 

 H.M.S. Samarang, T.picta and Belcheri.'\ 



The TurhinellfB are pretty widely distributed, but only in very warm 

 climates ; none inhabit our own shores, nor do they approach the Mediter- 

 ranean. The principal locahties are the Pliilippine Islands, the Gallapagos, 

 and other islands of the Pacific, Mauritius, Zanzibar, Panama, Ceylon, 

 Acapulco, Rio Janeiro, and the West Indies. 



* The animal of Turbinella cornigera is of a deep purple, finely marbled vnih. white, the 

 colom-s being fainter towards the margin of the foot. The eye is distinct, and well-formed, 

 having a black pupil and iris of a light yellow colour. It crawls with deliberation and appai-ent 

 difficulty, seeming to labom* under the weight of its heavy shell, as a tortoise does under that of 

 its carapace. It is, moreover, of a very timid disposition, shrinking, also, like the tortoise, 

 quickly within its shell on the slightest alarm. The specimen from which the foregoing obser- 

 vations were taken, was procured in about a fathom Avater from a weedy bottom on the shores of 

 BiUiton, an island in the Java Sea, between Borneo and Sumatra. — Adams, Moll. Voy. Samarang. 



t All described and figm'ed in the 'Conchologia Iconica.' 



