130 SWAINSONIA. 



Section Swainsonia, H. and A. Ad. 



Oliviform, smooth, polished, spire nearly as long as the 

 aperture. 



M. ZONATA, Marryatt. PL 38, figs. 122, 126. 



Yellowish brown, the lower half of the body-whorl chocolate- 

 brown, forming a narrow band on the spire. Length, 2 '5 inches. 

 Mediterranean ; deep water, in rocky places. 



Petit, writing in 1869, says : " Cette coquille est le reve et en 

 meme temps le desespoir de 1'amateur, Elle n'a 6t6 trouvee,dit-on, 

 que deux fois." It has since become more common, and although 

 one of the rare species, all doubt as to its being really an inhabi- 

 tant of the Mediterranean Sea, has finally been dissipated. It 

 has been found at Toulon, on the North African Coast, near 

 Catania, in the Gulf of Naples, Leghorn, Sardinia, etc. M. Sant- 

 angeli, Maravigna (fig. 126), is founded on a worn example in 

 which the colors have faded to white and orange. 



M. CASTA, Lam. PL 38, fig. 123. 



Ivory-white, covered, except a narrow band at the suture and 

 another wider one at the base, by a persistent smooth, thin 

 chestnut- or olive-brown epidermis. Length, 1-25-2 inches. 

 Zanzibar ; Mauritius ; Polynesia, in sandy mud, laminarian zone. 



Cabinet specimens usually preserve the epidermis, but when 

 specimens are weathered, they become uniformly polished white. 

 Mr. Sowerby makes M. Isevis, A. Ad., an unfigured species, a 

 synonym. I have preferred quoting Lamarck for this species 

 rather than Chemnitz or Solander,who used the name, less defi- 

 nitely, at an earlier date. M. bicolor, Swainson, is the young 

 shell of this species. 



M. FILUM, Wood. PL 38, fig. 127. 



White, with a very broad chestnut or olive-brown band, which 

 is finely streaked across with white, apex and base black tipped. 



Length, '85 inch. 



Zanzibar. 



Kiener and Deshayes have erroneously identified with this 

 species M. bicolor, Swains., which is really the young of M. casta. 

 M. affinis, Lesson, an uafigured species from the Gambier Islands, 

 may be identical with it. 



