298 



MURICID^. 



which I am about to describe to that of Buccinum is 

 very close, and the name Buccinopsis is of some years' 

 standing, as well as peculiarly appropriate. Dr. Stimp- 

 son lately propo'sed (without a description) another 

 name, Liomesus, for our British species : that name 

 would convey an erroneous impression, if derived from 

 the Greek, as the shell is not smooth in the middle. 

 The Buccinum deforme of Reeve (a sinistrorsal shell), 

 from Spitzbergen, appears to belong to the present 



- Srj BUCCINOPSIS DA 7 LEi*,;James Sowerby^ 



Buccinum Dalei, J. Sow. Min. Conch, p. 139, pi. 486. f. 1, 2 ; F. & H. iii. 

 p. 408, pi. cix. f. 1, 2. 



BODY pale yellowish-white, with a faint tinge of fleshcolour: 

 pallial tube rather long : head broadish : tentacles short, diver- 

 ging at an angle of about 25 ; tips blunt : eyes on short stalks 

 (the extremities of which appear like prominent tubercles) 

 near the outer base of the tentacles ; they are very small and 

 black : foot large and thick, expanded and rounded, as well as 

 double-edged, in front, minutely tubercled at the sides, and 

 bluntly pointed behind : verge falcate, very long and narrow. 



SHELL egg-shaped, with a truncated base, moderately solid, 

 semitransparent, somewhat glossy : sculpture, numerous very 

 slight and delicate spiral striae, and still more close-set lines of 

 growth ; these marks are only discernible with a magnifying- 

 power, the surface appearing smooth to the naked or unarmed 

 eye: colour that of ivory: epidermis extremely thin, pale 

 yellowish-white, with a faint tint of brown : spire short and 

 terminating rather abruptly ; apex compressed and regular : 

 whorls 5-6, tumid, rapidly enlarging; the last occupies at 

 least three-fourths of the shell : suture wide and slightly ex- 

 cavated, but not very deep : mouth forming an obtuse angle on 

 the^ inner side, and curved outwardly ; upper corner contracted 

 and acute-angled ; the length of the mouth is more than five- 

 eighths that of the spire : canal wide and deep, a little recurved 

 to the left, with a corresponding notch on the outside; its 

 edge is thickened and reflected : outer lip semicircular ; edge 



* Named after Dr. Dale, formerly an antiquary at Harwich. 



