BUCCINUM. 293 



Landor's verses express a similar idea as entertained 

 by children of a larger growth. In the 8()t]i Pr()1)lcm 

 of Buonanni will be found a satisfactory explanation of 

 this phenomenon_, on acoustic principles. 



It is the B. vuhjare of Da Costa, B. porcatum of 

 Gmelin, and B. Labradorense of Ileeve. The Tritonium 

 undatum of Fabricius is B. Grcenlandicum. 



2. B. Humphueysia'num*, Bennett. 



B. Humphreysianum, Benn. in Zool. Journ. i. p. 298, pi. xxx. (upper 

 figures) ; F. & H. iii. p. 410, pi. ex. f. 1. 



Body whitish or yellowish- white, speckled with black : 

 pallial tube cylindrical : tentacles conical, contractile and 

 therefore varying in length, widely diverging, and separated 

 by an intermediate membrane : eijes on short stalks or 

 protuberances: foot broadly lanceolate, rounded or slightly 

 bilobcd in front, with a small triangular process at eacli cor- 

 ner, bluntly pointed behind. 



SuELL of a more regularly oval shape than B. undatum, 

 thin, but nearly opaque, somewhat glossy : sculpture, numerous 

 and delicate, wavy, spiral impressed lines or stria), visible 

 only with a magnifying glass ; the surface is also covered with 

 still finer, slighter, and much more numerous longitudinal 

 strife, which require a stronger power to observe them ; no 

 distinct reticulation is produced, but the interstices of the 

 spiral striae are microscopically punctured : colour yellowish 

 or whitish, mottled with fawn or reddish-brown, or irregularly 

 banded with rows of spots or cbain-like markings of the last 

 colour : epidermis none : spire rather short, regularly tapering ; 

 apex blunt and depressed : tuJiorls 7-8, rounded and (convex ; 

 tlie last occupies more than three-fourths of the shell : suture 

 deep : mouth forming an obtuse angle on the inner or colu- 

 mellar side, contracted above into an acute angle, and expand- 

 ing outwards with a curved outline ; length about five-ninths 

 that of the spire: canal wide, open, and deep, exhibiting 

 outside a corresponding notch : outer lip semicircular, flexuous, 

 scarcely sinuated in the middle, sloping outwards from the 



* Named in honour of the late Mr. J. D. Humphreys, a conchologist 

 iit Cork. 



