339 



largest and best of which, containing the operculum, he 

 presented to the South Australian Museum. It is nearly- 

 full-grown, but has had all the coloured external layer re- 

 moved by erosion except near the aperture, where the mahog- 

 any tint and darker lines are still preserved. 



On August 1, 1893, the late Prof. Tate, at a meet- 

 ing of the Royal Society of South Australia, exhibited a 

 specimen obtained in a subfossilized state from the silt of the 

 Port Adelaide Creek at a depth of 24 ft. (Trans. Roy. Soc, 

 S. Austr., vol. xvii., p. 354). This prova^d the existence at no 

 very remote period of time of this species on the shores of 

 South Australia, and located it in our extra-tropical southern 

 coastline rather than in the tropical waters of Australia. 



In 1905 Mr. A. Zietz kindly presented me with an im- 

 mature bleached individual, which he had received from 

 Fowler Bay. 



In December, 1907, Dr. Torr and I searched the West 

 Coast of this State at Port Elliston, Venus Bay, Smoky Bay, 

 Streaky Bay, Scales Bay, Murat Bay, and Denial Bay, and 

 LeHunte Bay, without finding a fragment of this species. But 

 on St. Francis, the largest island in Nuyts Archipelago, we 

 discovered its habitat, and gathered a score of examples in a 

 state of greater or less dilapidation. Although Peron and 

 Baudin called here and carried home many shells from this 

 island and St. Peter's, they seem to have overlooked this 

 Turbo. St. Francis lies some thirty-two miles from Murat 

 Bay, and seventeen miles from the nearest point on the main- 

 land. It has a number of reefs running out into the sea in a 

 southerly, south-westerly, and westerly direction, with small 

 sandy intervening bays. The southern swell is constantly 

 breaking on these rocks and rolling as a surf into the tiny 

 bays. The Turbos were found wedged between the piled-up 

 boulders on the leeside of the reefs and in the crevices of 

 rocks, and their opercula were cast up on the sandy beaches. 

 It is really an ocean island, and is surrounded by water of 

 thirty fathoms in depth. 



We sought for living individuals, but unsuccessfully. 

 Mr. Arnold, who has lived there for many years, found only 

 one, just below watermark, on a rock face on {he north of the 

 island, some years ago. He says the animal is of a red 

 colour. 



On the top of the rocks were large quantities of oper- 

 cula and fragments of Turho stamineus, Martyn, which had 

 been taken by gulls from the reefs at low water, and smashed 

 so as to permit them to eat the shellfish ; but we did not find 

 a single fragment or operculum of T. jourduni among these 

 remnants. Again, although immature T. stamineus were 



