MUSEUM OF COMrARATIVE ZOOLOGY. 309 



Scala multistriata Say. 

 Scularia niultistriuta Say, Journ. Acad. Nat. Sci. Pliila., V. p. 208, 1820. 



In ivganl to this spi'cies, also, some confusion has prevailed. An authentic 

 ppecimeu preserved by Stiinpson enables us to dilFerentiate the shell. It is 

 especially characterized by the pointed apex, with a pale ^dassy few-whorled 

 nucleus, followed by a few faintly sculptured turns, the varices becoming close, 

 uniform, small, and Ihittish over strong spiral sculpture. About the fd'th whorl 

 the varices become less crowded, gradually sparser though still regular, and on 

 the last whorl one or two may be distinctly larger than the others. With 

 these changes the spiral sculpture, pari passu, has become finer and fainter, 

 at last nearly obsolete. Kiener, according to Stimpsou's notes, has confounded 

 this species with S. clathratulaj a specimen of which he may have received 

 under this name. 



Specimens received from the U. S. Fish Commission under the name of 

 S. leptalea Bush are young specimens of this species. According to Stimpson, 

 who collected it at Beaufort, N. C, the animal is of pure h3'-aline bluish white, 

 spotted with opaque white on the front of the head and foot. The tentacles 

 are very slender, the evertible proboscis, which pulls in from the tip, is very 

 large and oval when protruded. The front edge of the foot is double and 

 rectilinear from side to side, not perceptibly auriculate. 



Scala Sayana Dall. 

 S. clalhrus Say pro parte, non Auct. or Linne. 



Say described in 1831, supposing it to be the European clalhrus (S. communis 

 Lam.), a shell from which he separated as a variety angulata, the well known 

 species afterward named S. Humphreysii by Kiener and S. turhinata by Conrad. 

 The typical clathrus of Say, however, has never been elucidated or named. 

 It is a white shell with nine well marked varices continuous to the apex, which 

 has a smooth translucent pale brown nucleus of about three whorls. It has 

 none of the coloration of S. communis, from pale specimens of which it differs 

 by its greater slenderness and delicacy, by the deeper notch where the varices 

 of one whorl join those of the preceding whorl, by the longer curve which the 

 combined varices describe around the spire in the same length, and by the ab- 

 sence of the prolongation of the anterior margin of the lip, which is so marked 

 a feature of S. communis. In .S". Sayana the interstices are polished, smooth, 

 with occasional faint microscopic spiral striae. It never attains the size of 

 S. communis; the largest specimen I have seen has nine Avhorls, and measures 

 18 by 7 mm. 



The National Museum has specimens from Virginia to Key West, and also 

 from Corpus Christi, Texas. 



In a male specimen there were six slender nearly straight teeth on each side 



