OF SOUTHERN INDIA. 51 
some kind of denticles on the outer lip of the shell surface. So muchas we know at 
the present of Psewdocassis from the details given by Pictet and Campiche, this genus 
differs from the other Cypree in not haying any dentition or granulation on either 
lip of the aperture. The general form of the shell, the surface of which appears to 
have been smooth, agrees perfectly with the other crerzz and we can from this 
only conclude, that the genus (even if it remains defined as it is at present), must 
be placed in this sub-family. We have nothing from South India to add to it. 
VII. CYPRAA, Linné, (sensw Lamarcki). 
As we have already briefly noticed the principal distinctions of the different 
sections or genera of the crpr“zrv2 we would now only remark that, on account 
of the incompleteness of most of our specimens, we retain for the species under 
consideration the term Cyprea inits older sense, and give in addition (in paren- 
thesis) the nearest newer determinations. Several of these names may require 
alteration, when more complete specimens are procured. 
The Cypree live generally among rocks and on coral reefs, feeding chiefly 
on Anthozoa and other small animals. And there is every reason for believing, 
that they observed the same habits of living formerly. In the fossil state they 
are met with, either in sandstones or sandy beds, where they have been drifted, or in 
limestone banks with corals; very rarely are they found in clays, which generally have 
resulted from deposits in deeper waters. From European seas they appear to have 
mostly disappeared, although there is ample evidence, that they were formerly pretty 
numerous in the Vienna, Paris, and other, districts or basins. 
Including the latest additions, there are about 170 living species of Cyprea now 
known; but this number must be alittle reduced, because several among the smaller 
species (as C. asellus, hirundo &c., &c.) are more or less based solely upon variations 
in colour, which do not appear to be constant or specific. Hérnes is of opinion, * 
that the number of tertiary species does not exceed 44, of which 27 occur in the 
-neogene and 17 in the eocene strata. Deshayes describest 12 species from the 
Parisian basin alone. With a fewrecent additions from England, America and Aus- 
tralia, there will be at the least 55 tertiary species known, the majority of which are 
solely European. Up tothe present time, we know very little of the Cypree from the 
tertiary deposits of the East. Several species occur in India (Sind, &e., and Burmah), 
but there has yet been no critical examination of these, or of their specific distinctions 
(if any) from species now living. And looking to the probable extension of tertiary 
seas from Persia, all through Central Asia into Japan, what a variety of forms may 
have existed over this wide range! Ascending from the eocene into the neogene 
period we may say, that the number of crpr#zyz increases 50 per cent. 
After many contradictions of D’Orbigny’s assertions, that Cyprea did not 
occur in cretaceous rocks, it has at last been shown, that they are more numerous 
* Foss. Moll. Wien, 1856; p. 61. 
+ Anim. sans vertebres &e., Tom. III, p. 557 &e., 
