THE 



JOURNAL OF MALACOLOGY, 



No. 4. December 20th, 1895. \o\. IV. 



PURPURA CORONATA, LAM. IN THE WEST 



INDIES. 



By the Rkv. A. H. COOKE, M.A., F.Z.S., 



Fclloto iind Tutjv of King's College, Cambridge. 



Shells of a dwarfed form of Purpura coronata, Lam., have 

 been in my possession for the last few years, having been 

 brought back from Demerara in alcohol, with the animal inside, 

 by a near relation. During a recent visit to the British 

 Museum, Mr. Edgar Smith showed me some specimens of a 

 Purpura which I immediately recognized as identical with those 

 above-mentioned, and which had, in fact, been sent to him from 

 Demerara for identification. Still more recently I received from 

 Mr. R. J. L. Guppy, a bottle of marine shells taken alive on the 

 coast of Trinidad, among which were a number of specimens of 

 the typical P. coronata. 



It appears to me worth while formally to notify the occur- 

 rence of this common West African species on the South 

 American coast. In the Demerara form, which is so well 

 marked as almost to require special notification as a variety, 

 the shell is smaller than the type, and not nearly so squarely 



