402 CYPR.^ID^. 



tlie young is probably Voluta pallida of Adams (not of 

 Linne), and it agrees with tlie type in my possession of 

 Turton^s V. fusiformis. 



M. catenata and M. alba were erroneously described 

 as British by Colonel Montagu, M. catenata on tlie au- 

 thority of Swainson and Laskey, and M. alba on the 

 unsupported testimony of the last-named Avitness ; both 

 species are common in parcels of West-Indian shells. 



Genus II. CYPR.E'A^ Linne'. PI. VII. f. 4. 



Body like that oi Marginella. 



Shell oval, usually smooth and polished: spire in most 

 species covered over and concealed when the shell is full- 

 grovrn : mouth narrow, stretching from one end of the shell 

 to the other, and channelled at the top and bottom : outet' lip 

 folding inwards : piUar notched or tuberculated. 



Mucianus and Rondelet supposed that this shell-fish 

 was the famous i^evrjU, which is said by Herodotus to 

 have arrested, at the instance of Yenus, the course of 

 Periander^s ship, and to have thus prevented the exe- 

 cution of his barbarous design uitli regard to the Cor- 

 cyrian youths. Hence the name of Cyptrcea or Concha 

 Venerea. The i'^evi-jU of Aristotle was evidently the 

 sea-lamprey or lumpsucker. 



The young shell has a prominent spire, like that of 

 Marginella, which it resembles in shape also; in the 

 adult or perfect state the spire is covered and usually 

 concealed by successive layers of porcellanous matter, 

 and the shell then exhibits a close affinity to Ovula. 

 The outer lip in the earlier state of growth is thin and 

 has a sharp edge ; it is subsequently folded inwards and 

 thickened, so as to contract the mouth. Bruguiere 



* More correctly Cypria ; from Cypris, one of the names of Yenus. 



