334 VEXERIDiE. 



the Azores (Drouet). Brocchi and Philippi have de- 

 scribed it as fossil from the middle and newer tertiaries 

 of Italy. It is essentially a southern species. 



All we know of the animal is derived from Poli, who 

 called it Callista coccinea and devoted three and a half 

 folio pages to its description and anatomy. It must be a 

 gorgeous spectacle. He gives various recipes for cook- 

 ing it, showing that his gastronomic was as strong as 

 his conchological taste. The shell attains greater dimen- 

 sions than those which I have given, being occasionally 

 three inches long and three and a half inches broad, or 

 even more. 



In the tenth edition of the ' Systema Naturae ' Linne 

 appears to have confounded V. Chione with an allied 

 species from tropical seas, the habitat given by him 

 being "in O.Asiatico; forte etiam in Europceo." It 

 is the Pectunculus glaber of Da Costa, who quotes Dr. 

 Leigh (the author of the ' History of Lancashire ') as 

 his authority for stating that it was got on the coasts of 

 Cheshire ; Agassiz called it Cythei'ea lavis, and Leach 

 Chione coccinea. The young was described by Lamarck 

 under the name of Cytherea nitidula ; but his fossil of 

 the same name from Grignon is a different species. 



C. Mantle-tubes partly disunited and diverging. Shell tri- 

 angular, ornamented with concentric laminar ribs, and 

 sometimes cancellated by longitudinal striae ; inside margin 

 notched, except at the posterior side. 



4. V. fascia'ta *, Da Costa. 



Pectunculus fasciatus, Da Costa, Brit. Conch, p. 188, tab. xiii. f. 3. V. 

 fasciata, F. & H. i. p. 415, pi. xxiii. f. 3, pi. xxvi. f. 7, and (animal) pi. L. 

 f.7. 



Body suborbicular, compressed, rather thick : mantle mus- 

 cular at the edges, which are fringed with fine white filaments 

 * Banded. 



