328 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 
these, with the surface distribution of the purple part overlying the 
white as a rule. Fig. 2 is ajsection of the posterior part of the 
shell, where the purple is 2 of an inch thick. At the anterior end 
it is deposited in bands of purple and white. Fig. 3 is a section of 
the central basal margin, where 'the purple is too thin for a good 
quality of beads. This part was occasionally used, and the shell 
was cut so as to show the lines of growth. De Kay gives the ex- 
treme length as 4.5 inches. 
Mr Tooker also furnished some antique columellae from near 
Sag Harbor, divested of the outer whorls, and thus prepared to be 
worked into pins or long and:short beads. Fig. 4, 5, 6 show three 
of these, apparently of small shells of Sycotypus canalicu- 
latus. This occurs from Cape Cod to Florida, and is readily 
recognized by the canal around the spire. Fig. 7 is a young shell of 
Fulgur carica, often used, and having the same range. It is 
given here to show the opposite character of Busycon pjer- 
versum, which was commonly used in the south, not reaching 
northern shores. The peculiar feature of this latter shell is in hav- — 
ing the whorls revolve in the. opposite direction to most species, as 
may be seen. Fig. 8 is from a small specimen in the writer’s 
cabinet. De Kay gave two figures of this shell, revolving in the 
contrary direction to the typical form, and this, without comment. 
He called it Pyrula spicata, of Lamarck, and said: “I have 
met with this shell in the collections of Dr Budd and others, but 
can not find it authenticated as a New York species.”—De Kay, 
p. 142. It is not included in the list of invertebrates of Vineyard 
sound, nor has the writer ever found it on the coast of New York. 
It is proper to make this statement in correction of what W. H. 
Holmes has said of locality. “The Busycon perversum 
has been more extensively used than any other shell, and conse- 
quently its distribution in one form or other is very wide. It is 
obtained along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts from Massachusetts to 
Mexico, and within the United States it.is artificially distributed over 
the greater part of the Atlantic slope.” —Holmes, p. 192. Attention 
is called to its range now, because it is probable that almost all 
articles made from this north of Maryland are of quite recent use. 
