470 PELOEID^l. 



for this species, I now believe that both it and the preceding 

 are identical. In the great numbers I have examined during 

 the last forty years, I have never seen one with such de- 

 cidedly long, filiform, sharp-pointed tentacula as to distin- 

 guish it as a species ; I think therefore we may safely con- 

 clude that Montagu's animal is the L. perspicua. 



VELUTINA, Gray. 



Velutina has a single British species : it has been thought 

 to have a close connection with Sigaretus, on which point see 

 the remarks under the genus Natica : in addition it may be 

 stated, that Velutina has eyes, but no operculum : Sigaretus 

 is the reverse ; and whatever it may prove when more investi- 

 gated, we shall for the present consider Velutina a good 

 genus of the muricidal type ; I therefore consign it to the 

 Peloridae. 



V. LvEVIGATA, Auct. 



V. Itevigata, Brit. Moll. iii. p. 347, pi. 99. f.4, 5; (animal) pi. O.O. f.7. 

 Helix Itevigata, Mont. 



Animal suborbicular, inhabiting a brown auriform shell, 

 with a coarsely striated thick epidermis. The mantle is ex- 

 tremely large and fleshy, with two emarginations, one bran- 

 chial, on the left side of the centre of the shell, the other an 

 anal conduit ; it is marked in all directions with fine, intense 

 flake-white anastomosing lines; the inflations and thick lo- 

 bules of the margin can scarcely be maintained within the 

 periphery of the aperture. The head is of Muricidal stamp, 

 being a small, flat, almost united membrane, under which is 

 the mouth, a mere subvertical fissure, from which the animal 

 can exsert a long, cylindrical proboscis, annulated with fine 

 flake-white lines ; within the orifice is a small white palate, 

 supported by two oval, yellowish-brown, striated corneous 

 plates, between which is a very short, white, spiny tongue, 

 which is quite anterior, not T 2 n ths of an inch long. The 

 tentacula are short, white, not very pointed, and spring from 

 the head-veil, with the eyes on slightly raised eminences 



