92 LESSON XI 



The inhabitant is little known, but it is sup- 

 posed from its second sinus or notch, and its 

 curious digitations, that there must be some pe- 

 culiar circumstances in its construction and 

 habits. 



STROMBUS Pes Pelicani* 



PELICAN'S FOOT. 



Specific character. Shell turreted,")* finely 

 striated transversely; spire tapering to a fine 

 point with ten tuberculated convolutions ; the 

 body whorl has two rows of smaller turbercles 

 beneath the larger ones; outer lip much ex- 

 panded, four-clawed, the upper claw extending 

 up the spire, the lower one forming the beak ; 

 the two middle digitations are ribbed along the 

 back in a continued line from the rows of tuber- 

 cles, and underneath is a corresponding groove. 

 The shell is of a pale brownish flesh colour. 

 Length nearly two inches. 



The Strombus Pes Pelicani is subject to great 

 variations in the different stages of its growth. In 

 young shellsj the outer lip has not assumed its 

 peculiar form ; it first gradually expands, then 

 the claws appear, and finally it becomes digi- 

 tated. Shells are found in all the intervening 

 gradations between the young and the adult spe- 

 cimen. 



* Plate III. figure 5. 



f The whorls gradually decreasing, the length of the shell ex- 

 ceeding the width. 

 } Plate III. figure 6. 



