478 CONIDiE. 



length is the same as that of the exterior ; the pillar is 

 often even darker, being livid brown or chocolate, especially 

 at the base : the throat is quite smooth. The outer lip 

 is simple acute, moderately arched, and rarely (if ever) 

 strengthened by a rib (consequently the moutii is not so 

 contracted as in costata, and stnolata) ; its posterior 

 sinus, which is slightly and bluntly subangular, is rather 

 faintly indented. The upper portion of the inner lip unites 

 with the columella at a very obtuse angle ; the pillar itself 

 is rather elongated, devoid of sculpture, and for the most 

 part perpendicular ; but at the commencement of the short 

 and rather broad canal (the latter indicated chiefly by a 

 slight straightening of the right lip) it bends a little to the 

 left. Seven hnes in length and two in breadth, were the 

 dimensions of our largest individual of this form. 



The variety pyramidata is a rare shell, which combines 

 the turreted shape of the form just described, with the 

 smoother sculpture and, oftentimes, the colouring of the 

 succeeding one. The ribs are more rounded than in the 

 last ; the shell is considerably larger (measuring at times 

 three-quarters of an inch long, and nearly a third as much 

 in breadth), and of a white hue, adorned in the intervals 

 of the ribs, except beneath the suture, with a very broad 

 band of chestnut or rufous. Both the base of the body- 

 whorl, and the entire columella, are generally white. 



A third of an inch is the full length of the variety 

 laevigata, which has usually a whorl or two less than the 

 forms just described, and whose spire is, consequently, not 

 so much, if at all, longer than the body (on this point, 

 however, it varies in different specimens). It is coloured 

 by alternate zones of whitish and brown (the latter of 

 many tints, as chocolate, fawn-colour, &c.), that shade 

 into each other, and are so disposed, that, for the most 



