£30 JOURNAL OF CONCHOLOGY, VOL. 9, NO. 8, OCTOBER, 1 899. 



description, figure, and specimen it is decidedly at variance." And 

 they say, regarding what they conceive to be O. pallida, 1 " As the 

 apical whorls of the only existing type of Turbo pallidas Mont, have 

 been broken off, we are only able to conjecture from analogy that it 

 may belong to this genus. It resembles O. insailpta, but has a greatly 

 more elongated spire. The specimen in the National Museum is not 

 in such condition that we can assert its distinctness from any of the 

 species we have described. Much uncertainty has always existed as 

 to what Montagu really meant." Their figure of O. pallida, and 

 Sowerby's copy of it in his " Index," do not help one. Jeffreys, on 

 the other hand, gives evidence 2 for holding this as Montagu's 

 O. pallidas, in which he seems to have been generally followed, and it 

 would now be useless to guess what Montagu's Turbo pallidus is or was. 

 O. COno'idea Brocc. — 10 to 90 fathoms, in muddy sand. Fossil 

 in the Belfast deposit, one specimen (Praeger) ! This is another 

 variable species ; none of its characters can be considered strongly 

 marked except the grooved mouth, and that is visible in about 

 thirty per cent. only. The convexity of the whorls, the depth of 

 the suture, and the keeled periphery are exceedingly variable ; the 

 latter character varies from being strongly and sharply keeled to having 

 a perfectly rounded base. The type is obtusely keeled; when sharply 

 keeled, the base is pointed as Jeffreys describes, though his figure does 

 not show it ; and with regard to the " slight impressed line round the 

 periphery," that is observable only in ten per cent, of the specimens, 

 particularly in those with a sharp keel. It is, in fact, a line formed by 

 the keel in the process of growth, and is sometimes observable not 

 only on the periphery, but also at the base of the preceding whorls. 

 The umbilicus, again, varies very much, the reflection of the inner lip 

 sometimes partially and at other times wholly closing it. The tooth, 

 however, is always strong and conspicuous. The apex of the shell is 

 not inverted, but more or less exposed (when not worn down), as 

 shown in Jeffreys' figure, though described by him as " concealed and 

 twisted inwards." Very rarely in living examples a clear' white band 

 encircles the middle of the whorls. The structure of the shell is very 

 brittle, and dead specimens rarely have the outer lip perfect. A 

 pyramidal form from the Hebrides is nearly as broad as long. The 

 operculum will be found a very pretty object under the microscope. 

 Jeffreys' dimensions are too large ; it does not often exceed two lines, 

 and the usual size is a line and a half. 



Var. australis Jeffr. — Connemara ; Mayo ; Iona ; Shetlands. 

 This merges insensibly from the type. One form of it, with rounded 

 base and convex whorls, shorter spire and deeper suture, closely 



1 Op. cit., vol. 3, p. 306. 



2 Brit. Conch., vol. 4, p. 126. 



