240 VELUTINID,^. 



Orkneys (Goodsir and Forbes), Tresta Voe, Shetland 

 (J. G. J.) ; no less rare than local. Scandinavia (Miiller 

 and others) ; Iceland (Steenstrup) ; Greenland (Morch) ; 

 Kamptschatka ( S teller, ^t^e Middendorff ) , and perhaps 

 the Knrile Islands (Pallas). 



Lives in company with V. Icevigata. Both seem fond 

 of floating, and of getting ont of the water if confined 

 in a vessel. The middle plate of the tongue in the pre- 

 sent species is much deeper and proportionally narrower 

 than in V. Icevigata ; and it has fewer notches, the 

 central one of which does not extend half way down, 

 instead of to the base as in the other species ; and the 

 first side-plate has no claw, nor are the second and third 

 pleurae so long or so much incurved. 



It is perhaps the Helix coriacea of Pallas, and un- 

 doubtedly the Bulla flexilis of Montagu. Miiller's de- 

 scription is not less full and precise than that of his B. 

 velutina, the identity of which, as the type of this genus, 

 has never been questioned. Gray raised the present 

 shell to generic rank as Velutella. 



2. V. l^viga'ta*, Pennant. 



Helix lamgahm ?, Penn. Br. Zool. iv. p. 140, pi. Ixxxvi. f. 139. V. Icevi- 

 gata, F. & H. iii. p. 347, pi. xcix. f. 4, 5, and (animal) pi. 00. f. 7. 



Body milk-white, or whitish with a frosted appearance 

 (caused by fine anastomosing lines), sometimes having a faint 

 yellowish or pinkish hue : mantle pale yellow, often puckered 

 (as if distended with water) ; border shghtly reflected upon 

 the shell or extending beyond its edges ; pallial sinus narrow, 

 leading to a small round hole, which constitutes the branchial 

 opening : snout broad, thin, somewhat bilobed, and longer than 

 the front edge of the foot : tentacles contractile and varying in 

 length (usually short, and widely diverging) ; tips blunt : eyes 

 small and black, placed on tubercles : foot broad and thick, 

 truncated or gently curved in front, with ear-shaped corners, 



* Smooth. 



