CAPE-VERDE GROUP. 51? 



being either (as in the status major, or ' a. subalutaceaj from 

 S. Nicolao) subalutaceous and opake, and of a reddish castaneous- 

 brown, or else (as in the status minor, from the other islands) 

 a trifle more shining and for the most part considerably paler in 

 hue. I should mention however that the examples now before 

 me from Fogo are less pallid than those from S. Antao, S. 

 Vicente, and Brava, — having a distinctly darker and slightly 

 greenish tinge ; but they are by no means of the rich chestnut 

 which characterizes the ' a. suhalutacea'' from S. Nicolao. 

 Some of the individuals from S. Antao and S. Vicente, which 

 were sent to me by Dr. H. Dohrn, are relatively a trifle shorter, 

 broader, and more obese, than the generality of those from S. 

 Vicente and Brava, and were defined by him as the ' var. 3. 

 brevior;' and it seems to me that the Fogo specimens (although 

 darker in tint) might certainly, as regards proportions and out- 

 line, be associated with them. But, as in nearly all the Pupce 

 which I have hitherto examined from these Atlantic archi- 

 pelagos, the two forms which are usually more or less traceable 

 (namely one comparatively elongate, and the other compara- 

 tively abbreviated and obese) cannot be treated apart, but pass 

 into each other by imperceptible gradations. 



In its aperture and plaits the P. gorgonica is remarkably 

 well defined, — the former being somewhat semi-oval (or with a 

 slight tendency to be even semi-quadrate), rather small in pro- 

 portion to the size of the shell (at any rate in the status minor, 

 normalis), and with the peristome (which is not continuous 

 across the body-volution) very widely developed (particularly in 

 the examples from S. Vicente) or expanded ; whilst the latter, 

 which are four in number, are remarkable for there being only 

 one ventral one (and that very deeply immersed, large, incras- 

 sated, and medial, as in the European and Canarian P. granum), 

 the usual outer one near the angle of the lip being absent, one 

 (thick, tuberculiform, and remote) at the top of the columella, 

 and two palatial ones (small, and likewise deeply immersed), of 

 which the upper one is reduced to a mere rounded tubercle. 



Genus 8. ACHATINA, Lam. 



(§ Acicula, Risso.) 



Achatina spiculum. 



Achatina spiculum, Benson, Ann. Nat. Hist, xviii. 435 



(1856) 

 Csecilianella amcenitatum, Dohrn, Mai. Bldtt. xvi. 10 (1869) 

 „ „ Morel., Journ. de Conch, xiii. 



242 (1873) 

 Achatina spiculum, Pfeiff., Mon. Ed. viii. 289 (1877) 



