MELAMPUS. 107 



middle : iniier lip thin, broad, folded back on the base : pillar 

 thick, having two strong white folds, as in M. bidentatus, besides 

 often a small tubercle above thpm. L. 0-325. B. 0-15. 



Yar. ringens. Body yellowish-white, slightly tinged with 

 violet. Shei^ yellowish-white or creamcolour, sometimes 

 milk-white ; the thickened ridge of the outer lip is furnished 

 with several tubercles or teeth, which now and then form 

 transverse plaits and give a fluted appearance, as in tropical 

 species of Melampus ; the pillar has never less than three 

 folds, and has sometimes additional tubercles on the upper 

 part. Voluta ringens, Turt. Conch. Diet. p. 250. 



Habitat : Abundantly on mud-flats and salt-marshes 

 in all estuaries. The variety frequents the open sea- 

 coast, and lives in crevices of rocks and piers, as well as 

 on shingly beaches, near high-water mark. Marcel de 

 Serres (Bull. Sc. Soc. Philom. Paris, 1814, vol. i. p. 17) 

 noticed the occurrence of this species as fossil in a bluish 

 marl which was cut through in making a canal from the 

 Rhone to Marseilles, 5 or 6 feet deep, near Boisveil, in 

 the Departement of the Bouches-du-Rhone. Conovulus 

 myosotis (?) of Searles Wood, from the Red and Norwich 

 Crag, is (as he suspected) a difierent species ; it is un- 

 known to me as recent. The typical form is widely dif- 

 fused along the European shores of the Atlantic between 

 Nordeney (Menke) and Faro in Algarve (Morelet), on 

 both sides of the Mediterranean, and in the Adriatic; 

 Madeira (Watson) ; Jamaica (Barrett) ; United States 

 (Gould, Stimpson, and others). The variety has been 

 found in the north of France and at Naples ; it is the 

 Carychium personatum of Michaud. 



There has been a considerable diversity of opinion 

 among conchologists as to the proper habitat of this 

 species, reminding one of the story of the chameleon. 

 Montagu and Ferussac considered it marine, and Dupuy 

 as quasi-marine, while Draparnaud, Lamarck, and others 



