UNIVALVES. 95 



to the torrid zone, the Swiss fauna possesses 17 species, remark- 

 able for their brilliant shells; two of the species (Conm betuloi- 

 des and Aldrovandi] are most nearly related to an Indian species 

 (Conus figulinus, Linn.), another (C. antidiluvianus, Brug.) to a 

 species from the Chinese seas (C. Orbignyi], and only one (C. ven- 

 tricosm, Bronn) belongs to tropical and Mediterranean forms. 



Of the Cyprteidse, besides the small European species (Cypraa 

 europcea), there is another (C. pyrum, Gmel.) which now in- 

 habits the North- African coast, the Senegal, and India, and a 

 third (C. sanguinolenta, Gmel.) which now occurs only in Sene- 

 gambia. The genus Erato is represented by a widely distributed 

 species (E. Icevis) which now lives both on the English coast and 

 in the Mediterranean. 



The family Columbellariae presents exotic forms in the beau- 

 tiful genus Valuta (V. bernensis, May.), which principally belongs 

 to the southern hemisphere, and the great genus Mitra, of which, 

 however, only three species (Mitra scrobiculata, striatula, and 

 fusiformis) are found. There are also four species of Columbella 

 in Switzerland. 



The family Buccinidse offers numerous species of the genus 

 Buccinum (whelks) ; it played in Miocene times the same part as 

 at present, for it spread over numerous seas and was abundantly 

 represented. Of the sixteen known species, four are still living 

 in the Mediterranean. Of the tropical genera Terebra and 

 Oniscia three species, and four of Cassis, inhabited the Swiss 

 Molassic sea. One species of the last-named genus (C. saburon) 

 was spread over a great part of the Miocene sea, and it occurs 

 now in the Mediterranean, in the Red Sea, and at the Senegal. 

 It deserves especial notice that many species which are now 

 remarkable for a very wide area of distribution, reach back into 

 Tertiary times, and are therefore of great antiquity. This ap- 

 plies also to the only wing-shell of the Swiss Molasse (Chenopus 

 pes-pelecani, Linn.), the present distribution of which is, how- 

 ever, from the Mediterranean northwards. 



The numerous family Canalifera, in which the shell is pro- 

 duced into an elongated beak, furnishes many species of Murex 

 and Fusus (spindle -shell) . These, like most of their allies, are 

 predaceous animals, which bore with their proboscis into other 

 shells and eat out the soft parts. Of the former genus one of 



