MARSHALL : ON THE BRITLSH SPECIES OF BUCCINUM, FUSUS, ETC. 37 



and degree of sculpture. To give an idea of its extreme variability, 

 I may say that I have specimens of it corresponding not only to the 

 ribbed type, but to the var. driata, the var. ^ffexuom, the var. peJcujica, 

 and the var. acuminata. In rare instances it is as finely striated as B. 

 Jmiiiphreijdanum, while on the other hand I have examples which are as 

 much ribbed as any typical shell. Nor is Gwyn Jeffreys' white speci- 

 men at all singular ; I have a series of them ; while a very pretty form 

 from the East Shetlands, 60-90 f., is also white, very finely striated, ex- 

 tremely thin, with a cinereous, silky, deciduous epidermis, a form which 

 also occurs at Vardo, Finmark, in 100-150 f . ; this is B. ^(■lineideri, 

 Verk. The same form was also trawled off S.W. Ireland, in 55f., by 

 the Rev. W. S. Green, and off the south and west of Ireland, in 

 90-180 f.,by the "Porcupine." B.parndum, Verk., is different from this, 

 and is a white variety of B. (jrn'iitanilinoii, its specific identity being 

 indicated by the size, contour, spire, embryo, and micro-sculpture. 

 Jeffreys' figure is much too large and the spire too long for var. 

 zcfUuvlka ; that figure more correctly represents the thin deep-water 

 form of var. Jjf'ruosa mentioned above ; Sowerby's figure would do for 

 var. paupeirida, but not this ; while the figure in "British MoUusca " 

 (pi. cix, fig.4) is perfect, as most of them are in this well-illustrated work. 



The Leckenby collection contained an adult specimen little 

 more than half an inch in length, one of a pair said by Mr. Robert 

 Damon to have been dredged in \\^ey mouth Bay, and which changed 

 hands for 10/- On the other hand, specimens from Thurso and Wick 

 are very large, coarse, and solid, attaining 6-in. by 32-in. ; this is the 

 var. inrrai<i<afa of King ; but coarse and solid examples occur of every 

 size. 



Monstrosities are numerous, and many of them have received 

 special names. Two splendid figures of Turton's B. rarinafum will be 

 found in Brown's "Recent Conchology," and "Science Gossip" for April, 

 1894, contains figures of the curious malformation called monst. 

 hiop>'rculafum. As to the monst. irinpertulahim, Jeffr., that was the 

 outcome of a too eager inquiry, accompanied by a liberal offer, made 

 many years ago to the whelk-dealers for a specimen, and with the 

 inevitable result — as nature could not produce one to order, a counter- 

 feit was manufactured and successfully palmed off to a dealer, 

 but it did not travel any further. No genuine specimen of this "sport" 

 has been recorded. 



In dealing with the phenomena of sinistral shells, Gwyn Jeffreys 

 says that the animal "may be compared to the case of a man having 

 his heart on the right and his lungs on the left side of his body. The 

 structure of a mollusc is however not so complicated, and the con- 



