378 



MURICID^. 



Tliis is nndoubtcdlj the F. Bamjfius of English authors, as de- 

 termined by actual comparison. But the similarity of this and 

 the following species is such as to raise the question whether they 

 are not the same. Their shape, color, number of whorls, and char- 

 acter of the surface is the same, and they scarcely differ in anything 

 but size, this species being a miniature of the other. And yet there 

 is a constancy in both, and none of those intermediate specimens 

 of what mark the connection of distant varieties. I have no doubt 

 that the large figure of Donovan, which represents what he regarded 

 as a very large growth of his M. Bamffius, was taken from a speci- 

 men of what I have described as a new species. Brown seems to 

 have copied that figure, but in such a way as to render it doubtful 

 to which species his figure would best apply. I have never seen 

 this species exceed three fourths of an inch in length ; while my 

 smallest specimen of T. scalariforinis, an immature specimen, is 

 more than an inch in length. It generally appears covered with an 

 ash colored mouldiness, which disappears when moistened. 



Trophon scalariformis. 



Fig. 203. 



Shell fusiform, white or reddish-brown, with fifteen or twenty longitudinal, 

 compressed ribs ; aperture of the length of the spire. 



Ftisjts scalariformis, Gould, Sillim. Journ. xxxviii. 197; Inv. 1st ed. 288, fig. 203. — 



De Kay, N. Y. Moll. 143, pi. 8, fig. 182. 

 Trophon scalariformis, Stimpson, Check Lists, 6. 



Fig. CAi. 



Shell tapering at both extremities, reddish-brown 

 in the younger stages, white when old, whorls seven, 

 turgid, covered at close intervals with fifteen to 

 twenty compressed, white ribs, or arching plates, 

 laying over each other like tiles ; they are generally 

 a little flexuous, the edges sharp and jagged when 

 young, and more erect, smooth, and blunt on old 

 si)ccimens ; they are usually somewhat more elevated 

 at the posterior part of the whorls, so as to produce 

 an angular or coronated appearance; the interstices, 

 in adult shells, are smooth, somewhat wrinkled at 

 the sutures, with numerous faint, revolving lines, 

 which are not visible on younger shells ; aperture 

 half the length of the shell, produced into a moderately long, 



T. scalariformis. 



