MARSHALL: ADDITIONS TO "BRITISH CONCHOLOGY.'* I2j 



This species is "extremely variable in size, length of spire, com- 

 parative slenderness and breadth of the last whorl, as well as in a 

 slight degree of curvature."^ My largest, from Guernsey, are six lines 

 by one, and the smallest, from Scilly and Guernsey, do not exceed a 

 line in length. Every degree of variation in the proportions of length 

 and breadth will be found between these two extremes. Immature 

 specimens are angulated at the base, making the outline an elongated 

 cone, while adults are fusiform or spindle-shaped. It differs from E. 

 philippii in having a proportionally smaller and shorter aperture, and 

 in the apex not being suddenly narrowed at the tip. The var. riibro- 

 tinda is scarce. It resembles a large E. philippii var. gracilis, and is 

 erroneously figured as the latter in "British Mollusca." It is half the 

 usual width of the type (not half the size), and both have 10—12 

 whorls. It varies in size to as great extremes as the type, and 

 specimens equal to E. philippii var. gracilis are very difficult to 

 separate — in most Hebridean collections the two are mixed — but 

 when placed side by side it will be found that this variety has a more 

 attenuated spire, flatter whorls, the mouth longer and narrower and 

 not projecting beyond the profile-Hnes of the shell, while the base is 

 less swollen and more compressed, resembling that of E. subtilata. 

 The embryos of both are similar, and are invariably curved, while 

 adult specimens of var. riibrotincta are either straight, curved, or 

 flexuous. The pinkish colour of the upper whorls is of little account 

 as a character, many of the Eulimidcz, when fresh, having similar 

 stains. This species and the next, with their varieties, were imperfectly 

 and incorrectly described by Gwyn Jeffreys, and their determination 

 has been further obscured by Forbes and Hanley figuring one shell 

 for another. 



Professor Dall states that the form figured and described by Jeffreys 

 is the exotic E. oleacea of Kurtz and Simpson (185 1); while the 

 Marquis di Monterosato^ who has "a great repugnance to identify the 

 shells of European with more distant seas," substitutes the name of 

 E. liibrica for the European species, on the grounds that Cantraine 

 gave neither figure nor reference nor locality for his E. intermedia. 

 Unfortunately, Cantraine's type is irretrievably lost, but it has come to 

 be regarded by writers, without much questioning, as this species. 

 E. opalina Monts. appears to differ from this in outline only, the base 

 being somewhat broader. 



Jeffreys' figure is the only good one I know; Forbes and Hanley's, 

 as well as Searles Wood's, are too conical, or broad at the base, repre- 

 senting immature shells. 



E. petitiana Brus. — New to Britain. Several specimens from the 



I Jeffreys, "Moll. 'Lightning' and 'Porcupine,'" Proc. Zool. Soc, p. 367, 18S4. 

 3 " Conch. Profond. di Palermo," p. 14. 



