[.639J INYKKTKIJK'ATK ANIMALS OF VINEYARD SOUND, KTC. 



Massachusetts Hay to Labrador. Casr,o j'.ay, (J to ,~,o fallioins; com- 

 mon in the P;iy of Fnndy from low-water mark to 80 fathoms. Kinsley 

 reports it, as /'\cnnn'Hn, from fish-stomachs at StoningtoD, Connecticut, 

 Jn the Yale Museum are dead shells of this species, which have ; 

 occupied by .Hup<ifinri, found on Fire Island lieach,on the south side of 

 Long Island, by Mr. H. 1. Smith. It probably inhabits the deep water 

 oil' Block Island. 



The dentition of this species is decidedly bnccinoid. The central 

 plates are transversely oblong, deeply concave above, with the lateral 

 angles produced 5 below armed with three small, nearly equal, short teeth, 

 the central one largest, beyond which, on each side, it is concave, the outer 

 angles being a little prominent. The lateral plates are large, with an 

 outer, very strong, curved tooth, and two much smaller, slightly curved 

 ones near the inner end, the innermost being slightly the largest. 



The dentition agrees very closely with that of N. cuitiqua, the type 

 both of the genus 'Neptunea, Bolton, 179S, and Chrysodomus, Swainsou, 

 1840, but it is very different from that of Sipho Berniciensis (S. Island- 

 icus Trosch.), which Troschel refers to the Faciolaridce. The latter is 

 evidently the type of a genus (Sipho) very distinct from Neptunea; but 

 among the European species, gracilis, propiiiqua, buccinata, and the true 

 Islandica (as described by Jeffreys) are closely related to curta, and be- 

 long to the genus Neptunea, in the family Buccinida3. 



XEPTUNEA (Xeptunella) PYGM^EA. Plate XXI, fig. 115. (p. 508.) 



Fnsns IslandicuSj var. pycjmmis, Gould, Invert, of Mass., ed. i, p. 284, fig. 199, 

 1841. Tritonium pygmwnm Stimpson, Shells of New England, p. 46, 1851. 

 FttSHS Tnimlullii Linsley, Amer. Journal Science, ser. i, vol. xlviii, p. 28, fig. 

 1, 2, 1845 (non Gould, 1818). Fastis pygmcem Gould, Invert, of Mass., ed. ii, 

 p. 372, fig. 639. Ne.ptnnca (Siplio) pygmcea H. and A. Adams, Genera Recent 

 Molltisca, vol. i, p. 81, 1858. Chrys&domus pygmcctis Dall, Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. 

 Hist., vol. xiii 3 p. 242, 1870. 



Deep water off New London and Stonington, Connecticut, north ward to 

 the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. East of Block Island, 29 fathoms, sandy mud ; 

 off Buzzard's Bay, 25 fathoms ; off Gay Head, 19 fathoms, mud, abun- 

 dant and large; off Edgarton, 18 to 20 fathoms; Casco Bay, 10 to 40 

 fathoms, common ; Eastport, Maine, and Bay of Fnndy, low water to 

 100 fathoms (A. E. V.). Near Saint George's Bank, 40 to 150 fathoms ; 

 east of Saint George's Bank, 430 fathoms ; and off Halifax (S. I. Smith). 



The odontophore in this species is long and slender ; the dentition is 

 buccinoid. The middle plate is small, transversely oblong, concave 

 above, below convex, with one very small central tooth 5 lateral plates 

 relatively large and strong, with a large, curved outer tooth, and a 

 smaller bifid inner tooth, widely separated from the outer one. 



The peculiarities in the dentition of this species, in connection with 

 the singular wooly or velvety epidermis, indicate that this species 

 should form the type of a sub-genus, or perhaps even a distinct genus. 

 For the group I would propose the name XcptuncUa. 



