402 CYPILEID.E. 



the young is probably Valuta pallida of Adams (not of 

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

 Tin-ton's V. fusiformis. 



M. catenata and M. alba were erroneously described 

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

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

 unsupported testimony of the last-named witness ; both 

 species are common in parcels of West-Indian shells. 



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



BODY like that of Margmella. 



SHELL oval, usually smooth and polished: spire in most 

 species covered over and concealed when the shell is full- 

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

 to the other, and channelled at the top and bottom : outer lip 

 folding inwards : pillar notched or tuberculated. 



Mucianus and Rondelet supposed that this shell-fish 

 was the famous e^ev^iV, which is said by Herodotus to 

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

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

 cution of his barbarous design' with regard to the Cor- 

 cyrian youths. Hence the name of Cyprcea or Concha 

 Venerea. The e^ev^fe 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 Venus. 



