78 MARRAT : ON NASSA TRIFASCIATA AND N. ELEGANS. 



NASSA TRIFASCIATA, Gmelin. 

 By F. p. MARRAT. 



Nassa trifasciata, Gmelin. Part 34S9, No. 77 ' Gaultieri,' 

 pi. xliv., fig. A. 



== rutilans, Reeve, Con. Icon., pi. xxii., fig. 147. 

 = ujiicolora, Kien., pl.xix.,fig. 69. 

 = iinicolorafa, Reeve, pi. iii., fig. 17. 



Looking over the figures in ' Gaultieri,' last night, it occurred 

 to me that I had seen this shell, and after a careful search among 

 my shells of JV. tmicolora, and its broader varieties N. nitilans, I 

 found a rather young specimen with the three internal bands, 

 another specimen had only two bands, and the generality of them 

 were uniformly brown or purple-brown. Reeve says this shell is 

 closely allied to the N. olivacea-tmiia, Gmel., and so it appears to 

 be, but the operculum in my shells of the former are thin and 

 nassoid, while that of the latter is thick and remarkably pisanioid 

 in its character, agreeing with the figure in Quoy and Gaim., • Voy. 

 de L' Astrolabe,' pi. xxxii., fig. 15. 



January, iSjg. 



♦ ■•«^ 



NOTE ON NASSA ELEGANS, Soav. 

 By F. p. MARRAT. 



The history of this shell may serve as a very good 

 illustration of the want of care in the examination of what 

 has been done previously, and how a serious amount of con- 

 fusion results from the carelessness of these people. The name 

 was applied to a fossil shell, occurring in the Crag, in the 

 Min. Conch., by J. Sowerby, in 1824, pi. ccxlvii., fig. i. Kiener in 

 his Spec. Coq. Viv. in the collection of Lamarck, has figured in 

 his Genus Bucchmm, pi. xxiv., fig. 97, another N. elegans, Kien. 

 This author has not dated his monographs, which circumstance 

 renders them useless in comparing the dates according to priority, 



J.C. H., Mar., 1879 



