MELVILL AND STANDF.N : CYPR^ID^, OF THE PERSIAN GULF. 121 



Cypraea pallida Gray. 

 P.G. M.C. I. 



Generally distributed over the whole area. Many hundred fine 

 examples, mostly from Karachi, or Dabai, Persian Gulf, exhibit the 

 following variation, linked by intermediate forms. 



(a). Dorsal surface pale blue-grey, or cinereous, mottled indis- 

 tinctly with brown, dorsal blotch often quite absent : laterally spotted. 



(b). Dorsal surface golden-brown, beautifully centrally-blotched 

 with umber, literally suffused with very dark brown or grey. 



Every intermediate gradation seems to occur. 



Cyprsea pulchella Sow. 



Var. pericalles, nov. (irepLKaXXr]^, very beautiful). 

 Shell uniformly smaller, very polished, in form like the type, dorsal 

 markings similar, and as variable, with occasional dark sepia blotches, 

 more or less distributed in various examples, labial teeth 19-22, 

 typical, columellar teeth not extended far over the base, but more so 

 than in the allied pyriybrm/s Gray. The sequence would seem to be : 

 C. pulchella Swn. 



var. pericalles M. & S. 

 C. pyriforinis Gray. 



var. SDiithii Sowb. (Smaller than type, labial teeth 

 suffused with red, otherwise as in pyriforinis). 

 C. pyriforinis typica. 

 P.G. Four miles north of Barkha Island, at forty fathoms. 

 Gulf of Oman. Telegraph Cable, from fifty fatlioms, mud. Off 

 Mussandam, on the cable, forty-seven fathoms ; also from Fao, on 

 the cable, fifteen fathoms, a young shell. 



Typical C. pulchella has not, so far, occurred. 



Kiener figures the \3S. pericalles ('Genre Porcelaine,' pi. xxiii., fig. 2a) 

 mentioning it as the young form (p. 26). Our specimens, twelve or 

 more in number, are, however, mostly adult, exhibiting a dwarf race 

 of this very beautiful and still uncommon species. The average 

 dimensions are long. 32 mm., lat. 18 mm., as contrasted with typical 

 pulchella in our collections from China, whose measurements are : 

 max., long. 46 mm., lat. 26 mm. ; min., long. 37 mm., lat. 22 mm. 



Cypraea pulchra Gray. 



P.G. Shaikh Shuiab Island. Not hitherto found alive here. 



Mussandam, Elphinstone Inlet. One very large living specimen 

 (1903). Long. 55 mm. Lat. 32 mm. This fine example is of a plain 

 shining dun colour dorsally, {cf Kiener, Ic, pi. xv., f. 3). 



Gulf of Oman. 



