290 INVERTEBRATA OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



about half as long as the aperture ; lip sharp, direct or reflexed, 

 according to the stage of growth ; aperture brown. Length |- 

 inch, breadth -^^ inch, divergence 33°. 



Occasionally found in the stomachs of fishes. 



This is undoubtedly the F. Bdmfitis of English authors, as deter- 

 mined by actual comparison. But the similarity of this and the pre- 

 ceding species is such, as to raise the question whether they are not the 

 same. Their shape, color, number of whorls, and character of the 

 surface is the same, and they scarcely differ in any thing but size, this 

 species being a miniature of the other. And yet there is a constancy 

 in both, and none of those intermediate specimens which mark the 

 connection of distant varieties. I have no doubt that the large figure 

 of Donovan, which represents what he regarded as a very large 

 growth of his M, Bdriiffius, was taken from a specimen of what I have 

 described as a new species. Brown seems to have copied that figure, 

 but in such a way as to render it doubtful to which species his figure 

 would best apply. I have never seen this species exceed three fourths 

 of an inch in length ; while my smallest specimen of F. scalar if ormis^ 

 an immature specimen, is more than an inch in length. It generally 

 appears covered with an ash-colored mouldincss, which disappears 

 when moistened. 



FUSUS RUFUS. 



Shell slender and tapering^ fawn-colored ; whorls eighty having 

 eis'hteen or twenty oblique, rounded folds, and minute revolving 

 line^. 



Figure 192. 



State Coll., No. 15. Soc. Cab., No. 2374. 



Murex rufus, Montagu; Test. Brit., 263. Maton and Rackett; Lin. Trans., 

 viii. 145. Dillwvn; Catal., ii. 744. Turton ; Conch. Diet., 93. Wood; 

 Index, pi. 27, f. 134. Fleming ; Brit. Anim., 350. 



Fusus pleurotomarius, Couthouv ; Bost. Journ. JSTat. Hist., ii. 107, pi. 1, f. D. 



Shell elongated, tapering to an acute point, reddish fawn-color- 

 ed ; whorls eight, slightly convex, with numerous obliquely undu- 

 lating folds or ribs, amounting sometimes to eighteen or twenty ; 

 these are quite regular and prominent, the interstices or excava- 

 tions between them being of equal width with the folds ; they are 

 most prominent on the upper whorls, and vanish about the middle 



