MITRA. 123 



Considerable confusion exists in the nomenclature of this 

 species, the names of cornicula and cornea having been rather 

 loosely applied by different authors ; several of the most recent 

 investigators have applied to it that of M. lutescens, Lam., as a 

 name about which there can be no doubt ; I agree with Deshayes, 

 Reeve, etc., that the name given by Linnaeus may be fitly 

 preserved for the species. The form and coloration are certainly 

 variable how variable, I am not able to determine. The follow- 

 ing, among the large number of synonyms, have been variously 

 separated as varieties and even as species, and there are not 

 wanting connecting forms even with so typically diverse a species 

 as M. ebenus. 



M. Philippiana, Forbes (fig. ft), is considered by Weinkauff a 

 minor form of var. cornea, Lam. ; it appears to me to be merely 

 a young shell without distinctive features. A curious color- 

 variety is that figured by Kiener as M. cornicularis, Lam. ^fig. 

 f6). M. graja, Reeve (fig. f8), is from the Isle of Paros, 

 Grecian Archipelago ; it is a solid shell and appears to connect 

 with 



Var. LACTEA, Lam. (fig. f 9). 



Shell smooth, solid, white ; with fine revolving striae. 



Var. PLUMBEA, Reeve (fig. 80). 



Mitra plumbed, Lam., is usually referred to the smooth form 

 of M. ebenus, Linn., but the shell which Reeve and Sowerby have 

 figured for plumbea is very different from that species. It is 

 nearer to cornicula, but may be entirely distinct, being a larger, 

 stouter shell, chestnut-brown covered partially by a plum-like 

 bloom. 



Var. SCHRCETERI, Desh. (fig. 81). 



Pale horny brown, marked with white next the sutures and 

 with an irregular central light band. Length, 1-1-25 inches. 



Weinkauff* thinks this a West Indian species, but no such 

 form is known there. Deshayes considers it fully equivalent to 

 M. cornicularis, Lam. It connects closely with M. Kieneri, Sowb. 



*Bull. Mai. Ital., iii, 75. 



