154 BULLETIN OF THE 



shell. The posterior margin of the first post-embryonic whorl might easily be 

 rounded olF by erosion, when the solid nucleus within after a little wear would 

 put on quite a different appearance. The pattern of coloration, resembling 

 S. junonia and S. duhia, also resembles that of young Conus Jioridanus, Conus 

 Mazei Deshayes, and other not related archibenthal species. The pillar is 

 more flexuous than in either of the other species. The riblet sculpture resem- 

 bles not only that of S. duhia and S. Gouldiana in a general way, but also that 

 of the fossil S. mutdb'dis, perhaps the precursor of all the Gulf species. The 

 Blake dredged only fragments of this shell, the Fish Commission a single 

 adult. 



Aurinia Gouldiana n. s. 



Plate XXIX. Fig. 3. 



Valuta Gouldiana Dall, Conch. Excliange, II. p. 10, July, 1887. 



Shell rather small, solid, slender, white, brownish plum-color, or spirally 

 banded with whitish and claret-color, rarely square-spotted in spiral series; 

 whorls moderately full, five and a half beside the nucleus ; sculpture of fine 

 close distinct spiral threads covering the whole surface except the anterior part 

 of the last whorl, where they gradually give way to much stronger and more dis- 

 tant threads, which in some specimens wind into the aperture, as if simulating 

 small plaits ; the nucleus is nearly flat, whitish, consisting of one whorl rising 

 a little above the posterior edge of the first post-embryonic whorl, and having 

 a central projecting initial point, but less prominent than in V. rohusta. The 

 suture is appressed and in the early whorls a little marginated ; the first whorl 

 is only strongly spirally striated and convexly rounded ; the succeeding whorls 

 have the periphery rippled by a succession of (on the third whorl 22) small 

 waves, with their anterior slope steeper than the other, and which, in some 

 specimens, extend to the last third of the last whorl before becoming obsolete, 

 though ceasing sooner in others ; these waves are generally confined to the 

 periphery and vary in strength and number in diff"erent specimens, one speci- 

 men having only eighteen on the third whorl ; the color varies from yellowish 

 white to a ruddy brown with a suggestion of purple in it, which is usually 

 stronger at the suture along the pillar and outer lip, and especially tow^ard the 

 end of the canal. The fresh specimens nearly all show a tendency to spiral 

 banding; one beautiful but half-grown specimen has six narrow pale bands, the 

 second from the suture being on the periphery, with the much wider inter- 

 spaces of a brownish claret color; this fades slightly, but the M'hite ones do not 

 seem faded. The outer lip is sharp with a dark margin, the throat w^hitish, 

 the pillar callus yellowish white ; there are, in the very young, four plaits, of 

 which the first and third, counting backward, are fainter than the other two ; 

 in adult shells rarely are more than two visible and those are quite faint ; 

 there is only a light glaze on the body whorl; in the adults the nucleus and 

 first whorl are generally so worn as to resemble one of the common round 



