114 NEPTUNE A. 



The animal has a white or yellowish white body, sometimes 

 partially speckled with black ; the sole of the foot often straw 

 color or light orange. 



Cornwall (coralline zone) to Shetland (there found in the 



laminarian, and deep water also) ; North Sea ; 

 Atlantic Coast of France. 



Kobelt has varieties carinata and despecta, but Jeffrej^s con- 

 siders them distinct from this species, of more Arctic distribution, 

 and not found living (although fossil) in the British Isles. I 

 agree with Jeffreys' views. On the other hand, Jeffreys has the 

 following varieties, viz. : alba, ventricosa, striata, gracilis ; they 

 are merely arbitrary distinctions among forms very variable. 

 Jeffreys also enumerates montrosities, as follows : 



N. contraria, Linn. Spire reversed. (This has usually been 

 considered a distinct species, and I prefer to so regard it.) 

 Monstr. 2. acuminatum ; Monstr. 3. scalariforme, whorls more 

 or less detached ; Monstr. 4. cinctum, with a sharp ridge at the top 

 or in the middle of the lower whorls, now and then bicarinated ; 

 5. sulcatum, lower whorls furrowed in the middle, and outer lip 

 notched like a Pleurotoma ; 6. Babylonicum., spire turre ted ; 7. 

 compressum, squeezed in at the sides, mouth narrow ; 8. Volutde- 

 forme, shaped like a Voluta ; 9. varicosum, the former outer lip 

 (sometimes two or three of them) persistent ; 10. contorlum, spire 

 twisted on one side or inwards; 11. suffultum, basal ridge con- 

 tinued to the periphery ; 12. bioperculatum, having two opercula. 



The following information concerning this common British 

 shell I obtain from Jeffreys.* 



" This is good bait for codfish, and a favorite delicacy of the 

 lower working-classes in London. At Billingsgate it is sold 

 under the name of ' almond ' or ' red whelk ;' according to Rutly's 

 History of Dublin the Irish call it ' barnagh,' the tail (liver) 

 being said to be more fat and tender than a lobster. The egg- 

 cases or capsules (Yol. II, t. 7, f. 11) overlap one another in an 

 imbricated fashion, each being firmly attached by its base to the 

 underlying capsule ; they are deposited in clusters of from a 

 dozen to a hundred, the capsules in each cluster being equal in 

 size. Those which compose one cluster, however, are not half as 



* Brit. Conch. IV, 326. 



