202 NATURAL HISTOHY. 



" The ' Volutes ' have lai-ge and fine shells, elegant in their form, and often remarkable for their 

 painting and rich colour. They are tropical shells, numbering about one hundred species, and have 

 been grouped in about half a dozen sections or sub-genera, examples of some of which are difficult to 

 obtain. The Voluta abyssicola, supposed to be the living representative of the fossil Volutes of the 

 London Clay, is now only known by a unique specimen from deep water off the Cape, formerly in the 

 collection of Mr. Lombe Taylor. The Voluta aulica was unique until Mr. Cumming's return, and 

 Sowerby valued the Tankerville specimen at forty guineas. Voluta fulgetriim, in the same collection, 

 was priced at 31, and Voluta papillosa ,21. The fine Voluta junonia in the British Museum is 

 worth .40 ; and the less conspicuous Voluta piperata, acquired at M. Vernede's sale, was valued at 

 16. The Voluta reticulata in Mr. N orris's collection cost 30 ; and Mr. Dennison gave 20 for the 

 first specimen of Oniscia dennisoni, and his collection is remarkable for the number of fine and costly 

 shells it contains." (S. P. Woodward.) 



The Volutes extend from the littoral zone to one hundred fathoms depth. Voluta junonia 

 was dredged in the Gulf of Mexico, at a depth of seventy fathoms. 



The genus Melo, or the " Melon," has a large, somewhat oval, inflated shell, with a short spire, 

 the apex of which is obtuse and rounded (maminillated), and the whorls are smooth. The columella 

 has several oblique plaits on it, the outer lip is thin and simple, and the shell is truncated in front. 

 Most of the species of Melo are ornamented with a variety of colours, and the whorls are adorned 

 with a diadem of spines ; the living shell is covered with a greenish-brown epidermis. The foot is 

 large and thick ; the eyes are at the outer bases of the tentacles. The animals of Melo and 

 Cymba are both ovo-viviparous, bringing forth their young alive without egg-shells. The iiatiA r es of 

 the Papuan Islands use the shell of the Melo to bail out their canoes with. About ten species of Melo 

 are described, principally from New Guinea. 



The genus Ct/mba, or the " Boat-shell," is less elegant than the " Melon ; " the embryo or apex of 

 the shell is large and globular ; the whorls few, and flattened. The writer has captured large numbers 

 of the living Cymba olla in Catalan Bay, at the east side of the rock of Gibraltar, in the Mediterranean, 

 cast ashore after a heavy sea from the south-east. They were trying to bury themselves by the aid of 

 their huge foot in the sands, but the sun dried the sand faster than they could dig down, and so they 

 fell a prey to the collector ! Like Melo, it is ovo-viviparous, and the young, when born, are an inch 

 in length. Ten species are described from the West Coast of Africa, the Strait of Gibraltar, and as 

 far north as Lisbon. 



Marginella is a smooth, bright shell, with a short or truncated spire, a narrow aperture, a plaited 

 inner lip, and a thickened outer lip. The animal is like CypraBa. There are ninety species of these 

 pretty little shells described, mostly tropical. Numerous beads have been found, made of the shells 

 of the genus Maryinella, in ancient graves discovered in Tennessee. The shells were ground down so 

 as to make a perforation on the back, by means of which they could be strung together for 

 purposes of personal ornament. 



FAMILY VII. CY 



In this family the head of the animal is broad, the rostrum short, the tentacles long, the eyes 

 placed on projections near their external bases, the siphon is long, the mantle has large expanded 

 side-lobes covering the shell. There is a single branchial plume ; the operculum is wanting. 



The shell (as in all Molluscs where covered by the mantle-lobes) is usually smooth and polished ; 

 and the last whorl is large, convolute, and wholly or partially conceals the others ; the outer 

 lip is bent inwards, thickened, and toothed, the inner lip is dentated or corrugated. The mantle-lobes 

 are often ornamented along their borders with filaments or serrated edges ; sometimes, however, 

 they are smooth and simple. The foot is large, expanded, and often greatly elongated behind. 



" In their habits the Cowries are shy, and crawl slowly ; they are nearly all tropical animals, 

 inhabiting the warmer seas ; and as they glide along among the coral reefs and in the shelter of rocks, 

 with the lateral lobes of their mantles adorned with showy colours, they present to the eye of the 

 naturalist objects of singular interest and beauty." (Adams.) 



There are few shells that are more persistent in form than are the " Cowries." Tn Cyprcea. 

 proper the shell is somewhat cylindrical in form when adult, varying, however, according to the 



