455 



PELOBID,E, nobis. 



Animalia, quoad testam fbrmae variabilis, nunc Naticam, Sigaretum, 

 nunc Bullam, aut Scalariam simulantia; apertura Integra vel 

 canali obsolete ; quoad organa essentialia, summse consensionis ; 

 semper proboscide retractili plus minusve longa prsedita ; pallio 

 ad latus columnare canalem brevem efformante. 



Having, agreeably to my method of the classification of the 

 British Mollusca, constituted the family of the Pelorida, 

 forming, as I think, one of the approaches to the Murices, 

 I have thought that it would be a proper attention to 

 naturalists, and justice to myself, to assign the reasons for the 

 step I have taken, by giving some account of the singularly 

 anomalous genera and species that compose the new family, 

 which, though often mentioned, and some of them have 

 even fallen on good ground with respect to natural order, 

 have not received the attention they deserve. My object is 

 to give these aberrant animals a more collective form and 

 improved arrangement, with respect to their connexion with 

 the Muricidal tribes, until better are proposed; for in the 

 present age we see that the highest intelligences in every 

 science are scarcely more than ephemeral, " summisque 

 negatum stare diu." I have also supplied fuller descriptions 

 of the British species, and hope I have interspersed some 

 observations that have hitherto escaped the attention of 

 naturalists. 



Several of the species were known to Linnaeus and his 

 followers, but the older zoologists being comparatively ignorant 

 of the animals, have transferred them from genus to genus, 

 and the moderns have not yet succeeded in bringing all of 

 them to a safe anchorage. I have felt a difficulty in uniting 

 these wanderers, almost without a home, as aberrant sections 

 of the strict Muricida, though the animals have some of the 

 essential organs of that family, and it would be still more 

 inconvenient to locate them in any of the existing families of 

 the Holostomata. I have considered that the best plan would 



