LOWER CALIFORNIAN MOLLUSCA. 211 



but is Otherwise bleached. All of them have the vertical 

 riblets on first two whorls. 



B. PROTEUS Broderip, 1832. This species, as found 

 on the peninsula, is not such a "protean" form as some 

 others. Mr. Eisen sent 88 dead and mostly bleached 

 shells from between the valle3's and the " fig region " of 

 Sierra Laguna, 3,500 feet altitude, and considers it a 

 species almost confined to the mountains. They all have 

 more or less rough sculpture, and no variation in the 

 longitudinal darker stripes, but var}' in form just as does 

 B . pall id /or. The largest from the fig region is 2.50 

 inch long and 1.20 wide. The smallest perfect one, found 

 at " Laguna " by Mr. Belding, is 1.80 inch long and 1.20 

 wide. The only living one, also by Mr. Belding, is from 

 " Painted Rock," and young; it has a thin epidermis of 

 a pale brownish 3'ellow color. The largest is a third 

 longer than Binney's figure, the smallest about equal to 

 it. In the young the three apical whorls are seen to have 

 the same vertical riblets as in B. inscendens, etc. The onl}^ 

 specimen giving a suspicion of hybridity between this and 

 other species is the one of B . paUidior before mentioned, 

 but the resemblance in form of small ones of this and 

 some oi pallidior is very close. As to other species, the 

 rough sculpture sometimes occurs, but their forms are 

 entirely dissimilar, thus making hybridity improbable. 



B. spiRiFER Gabb., 1867. Only one specimen, 1.45 

 inch long and 0.70 wide, of this form has yet been sent 

 us, and this is a dead one picked up by Mr. T. S. Bran- 

 degee near La Paz, which is thus verified as its most 

 southern limit. It agrees well with Gabb's figure in 

 Amer. Jour, of Conch., but not so well with Binney's in 

 L. and F. W. Shells. The prominent tooth winding in- 

 ward from the columella is very marked in this, but not 

 shown in Binney's figure. It is a specific character and 



