CANALIFERA. MOLLUSCA. CANCELLARIA. 283 



Cancellaria Couthouyi. 



Shell ovate-conic, ichite, reticulated with coarse revolving lines, 

 and lines of groicth ; three folds upon the pillar. 



Figure 190. 



State Coll., No. 25. Soc. Cab., No. 2368. 



Cancellaria buccinoides, Couthouy ; Bost Journ. JS'at. Hist., ii. 105, pi. 3, f. 3. 

 Cancellaria Couthouyi, Jay ; Catal. of his Cabinet, 1839. 



Shell ovate-conical, somewhat turreted, milky-white, approach- 

 ing to horn-color ; whorls five or six, convex, flattened at the top ; 

 suture well defined, and sometimes profound ; apex acute, the an- 

 terior whorl composing two thirds the length of the shell ; surface 

 marked with distinct lines of growth, and sometimes rising into 

 folds near the suture ; coarse revolving lines surround it, which, 

 with the folds, form a net- work ; aperture half the length of the 

 shell, oval ; outer lip sharp, slightly crenulated by the revolving 

 lines ; inner lip arched with three inconspicuous, oblique folds, of 

 which the middle one is largest ; a thin coating of enamel spreads 

 upon the anterior whorl in mature specimens ; base sub-channelled. 

 Length ^h inch, breadth /^ inch, divergence 58°. 



Found in fishes taken in various parts of Massachusetts Bay, 

 and usually occupied by a hermit crab. It is somewhat abundant. 



It was first desci'ibed by Mr. Couthouy under the name of C. lucci- , 

 noides, a name previously given to a species from the Pacific by Mr. 

 Sowerby ; on which account, Dr. Jay has since applied to it the name 

 of its first describer, — a merited compliment, but in conformity to 

 what seems to me a very bad custom. It is not at first obvious to what 

 genus this shell belongs ; Mr. Sowerby coincides in the opinion that 

 it is correctly referred to Cancellaria. He states, moreover, that he 

 has for several years possessed it, brought from the Arctic seas. 

 Hence, it is probably more abundant to the north of us. It varies 

 considerably in its external appearance, from the greater or less prom- 

 inence of the folds and striae. A specimen belonging to Dr. Prescott, 

 of Lynn, measures -^^ inch in length, and ^V if^ch in breadth. It 

 somewhat resembles C. australis^ Sowerby. This is the only species 

 of the genus found in the northern Atlantic, so far as I am aware. 



