442 



FUNAFUTI ATOLL. 



correctly identified it, the shell was first taken by Belcher during 

 the voyage of the " Sulphur." He noticed it at Port Carteret, 

 New Ireland, as " numerous among fine gravel at low water." 

 There are two colour varieties of this shell one pale, the other 

 dark. Conchological tradition appears universally, but I think 

 erroneously, to regard the dark form as T. ruber and the pale as 

 T. violaceus of Quoy and Gaimard. For the purpose of specific 

 determination the descriptions of all older writers, and most 

 modern ones, of species of Triforis are worthless. The identity 

 of T. violaceus must be decided by the illustrations of that species 

 in the " Atlas of the Voyage of the Astrolabe." This shows a 

 slender and produced anterior canal, and an anal notch projecting 

 as a complete tube, remote from the aperture. Specimens answer- 

 ing to these details, which I collected in Milne Bay, British New 



Fig. 29. 



Guinea, are before me. Though Quoy and Gaimard may them- 

 selves have confounded distinct species, and though Kiener's 

 figure from " Astrolabe " material appears to disagree with the 

 former illustration, yet the only safe point of departure in un- 

 ravelling the nomenclature of this group must be Figs. 22 and 23 

 of PI. Iv. of the Atlas aforesaid. In the particulars of the anal 

 and anterior orifices, the shell before me, presumed to be T. ruber, 

 differs altogether, as the accompanying drawings show. 



In the unsatisfactory state of literature, the following remarks 

 may not be deemed superfluous. 



This species varies in size, stoutness, and colour ; from the 

 adult an immature shell so differs in outline, that a collector does 

 not at first recognise it as the same kind, for it much resembles 

 Triforis gemmulatus, Adams and Reeve.* As a whole the contour 

 of the adult shell resembles that of a carrot, the upper whorls 



* Adama & Keeve Zool. Samarang, 1850, Mollusca, pi. zi., fig. 34 a, 6. 



