Dr. J. E. Gray on the Head of the genus Conus. 177 



Having lately, in pursuing my researches on the teeth of Mol- 

 lusca, examined the mouth of several species of Cones, I was sur- 

 prised to find that they were all p^o^•ided with a distinct retractile 

 proboscis, and that the part which had been mistaken for the 

 rostrum was only a prolongation of the veil which unites the 

 base of the tentacles, always found in the Proboscidifera, but 

 which in this genus is more developed, and assumes the sem- 

 blance of a rostrum. This is the more remarkable, as Adanson 

 specially describes the mouth of the rostrum as round and con- 

 tracted, and some authors figure it as linear and inferior. 



The veil in all the species I have examined is produced some- 

 what like a muzzle or rostrum, and is pro\'ided with a large aper- 

 ture, which, when contracted in spirits, is oblong, transverse, and 

 has a more or less large longitudinal slit on the centre of the 

 upper surface, as is well represented in De Blainville^s figure of 

 the animal (Freycinet, Voy. t. 67. f. 7, copied by Mrs. Gray, !Mol- 

 lusca, t. 11. f. 8) ; but from the appearance of the animal when 

 it has been placed in a weak solution of caustic potass, I beUeve 

 that it is funnel-shaped and expanded at the end when the ani- 

 mal is alive ; and Adanson particularly observes that the Cones 

 use the mouth, as he calls the end of the veil, as a leech does its 

 oral disk, to attach itself to any animal it touches. 



In most specimens the veil is simple on the edge, but in others, 

 as Conus Tulipa and C. striatus, it is fringed with a series of cy- 

 lindrical beards or tentacles, as represented by Quoy and Gaimard 

 (Vov. Astrol. t. 53. f. 2 & 12, copied by Mrs. Gray, Mollusca, 

 t. 12. f. 2 & t. 10. f. 6). 



The proboscis in its retracted state, as seen in the animal pre- 

 serv^ed in spirits, is short, broad, conical, annulate, prominent, 

 in the base of the tubular veil, with a roundish central mouth. 

 Instead of having any elongated lingual band covered with 

 short transparent teeth, like the rest of the Proboscidifera and 

 Rosirifera, it has a fleshy tube with a bundle of subulate barbed 

 teeth directed towards the mouth ; this tube is prolonged behind 

 and below at right angles with its upper part and mouth into 

 an elongated, fleshy, attenuated subulate tube, containing with 

 its hinder edge two series of similar subulate red barbed teeth 

 directed from the aperture towards the apex of the tube. 



The teeth are implanted by a distinct root into the substance 

 of the tube ; those near the upper or oral part of the tube 

 are placed rather irregularly in two parallel rows, but those 

 nearer the tip are more crowded, and the lines gradually diverge 

 from each other. 



I shall not attempt to describe the manner in which these 

 teeth are brought into action, as I have only seen them in the 

 preser^'ed specimen ; but those nearest the mouth are probably 



