PHASIANELLA. 
Puate I. 
Genus PHASIANELLA, Lamarck. 
Testa oblongo-conica, varie vivide colorata, porcellanea, 
nitens, anfractibus quinque ad septem, convewis, aper- 
turd ovata, fauce alba, labro simplici, columellé ar- | 
cuata, alba, plus minusve callosi. 
Shell oblong-conical, variously brightly coloured, porcelain, 
shining, whorls five to seven, convex ; aperture ovate, 
interior white, columella arched, white, more or less 
callous. 
Zoologically Phasianella is allied to Turritella, the 
animal being furnished with a fringed collar, but more 
largely developed, while the foot has three pairs of digi- | 
tated processes. 
and Gaimard in the Mollusca of the ‘ Voyage de I’ Astro- 
labe.’ The shell, unlike that of Zw ritella, is composed of 
not more than from five to seven whorls, and is never sculp- 
tured. The surface is always smooth and shining, with 
the texture very much of the appearance of painted porce- 
lain. The operculum is solid and calcareous. 
There is so little variation of form in the shell of Pha- 
sianella, and so great a variation of colour, that it has been 
almost hopeless to attempt to identify many of the named 
species. Who can pretend to decide the species indicated 
by the Helix solida of Born, illustrated by a worn dis- 
coloured specimen, or the Phasianelle Lehmanni, Preissii, 
and drevis of Menke, with no illustrations at all? Lamarck’s 
P. rubens and variegata and Dr. Gray’s P. brevis have 
also eluded my endeavours to identify them. 
The Phasianelle are peculiarly Australian, living abun- 
dantly at Swan River, Adelaide, and Kangaroo Island, 
and producing the most lovely painted shell that the most 
ardent connoisseur could desire. Smaller species have also 
been collected at Ceylon and the Philippine Islands, 
Natal and Zanzibar. But the most curious feature in the 
geographical distribution of the Phasianelle is thepresence, 
in great numbers, of a species, P. Viewwxii, in the Mediter- 
ranean, and one, P. pullus, in our own seas, which appears 
again in the West Indies and at the Cape of Good Hope. 
Species 1. (Pl. i. Fig. 1 a, 4, c, d, and Pl. II. Fig.e, fg, 
Mus. Cuming.) 
PHASIANELLA AUSTRALIS. Phas. testd oblongo-conicd, 
It has been well figured by MM. Quoy | 
levigata, porcellaned, politd, carneo-albidd vel auran- 
tid, rufo et purpureo-olivaceo varie longitudinaliter 
nebulosd et transversim articulatd, spird subpyramidali- 
exsertd, anfractibus septem ad octo, superné declivi- 
impressis, deinde cito convexis ; apertura subpyriformi- 
ovata, fauce alba, labro simplici, columelld sepe cal- 
los. 
SOUTHERN PHASIANELLA. Shell oblong conical, 
smooth, porcelain, polished, flesh-white or orange, 
variously longitudinally clouded and transversely arti- 
culated with red and purple-olive, spire somewhat 
pyramidally exserted, whorls seven to eight, slopingly 
impressed round the upper part, then suddenly con- 
THE 
vex ; aperture rather pyriformly ovate, interior white, 
lip simple, columella often callous. 
Buceinum australe, Gmelin, Linn. Syst. Nat. p. 3490. 
Phasianella bulimoides, Lamarck. 
Phasianella varia, Ene. Méth. 
Phasianella picta, De Blainville. 
Phasianella australis, Deshayes. 
Hab. Kangaroo Island, Australia. 
Of this very beautiful and well-known species we have 
figured seven specimens, illustrative of its varieties of 
painting. Fig. 1 a represents the typical and most com- 
mon state of P. australis. It is clouded longitudinally in 
a festooned manner, with purple-olive, and banded trans- 
versely with the same colour of a paler hue. The inter- 
spaces between the bands are white, articulated through- 
out with great regularity, by curved red lines. In Fig. 1 J 
the shell is a rich orange-drab, encircled with rather dis- 
tant bands of darker and more blotchy articulations, with 
a similar band, much more faintly indicated, between them. 
The painting of Fig. 1 ¢ consists of pale articulated bands, 
but the articulations are crimson-lake, forming distinct 
arrow-headed blotches at intervals. Fig. 1 d has the lon- 
gitudinally festooned cloudings unusually strongly painted, 
with the articulated bands more broken up. The two 
last-mentioned specimens belonged to an enthusiastic col- 
lector of the old school, formerly residing at Chelsea. 
The story goes, that on hearing of their arrival in some 
vessel at Liverpool, he took a chaise and four, and posted 
after them. He secured his purchase, but by the time 
he reached home the two shells cost him £76. 
May, 1862. 
