A. E. Verrill — Catalogue of Marine Mollusca. 
471 
B. mitrula , as figured, has a different aperture, a wider and more 
open canal, and its spire is more elevated, with the whorls more 
broadly exposed. 
Owing to the great amount of confusion that exists, both in this 
country and Europe, in regard to our commoner species of Bela , I 
have given several new figures, and now add the following entirely 
new descriptions of those species contained in Binney’s Gould and 
other works on New England Conchology, hoping that, in the future 
these details may aid others in the more accurate identification of 
our species of this difficult genus. 
At present it seems useless to attempt to identify many of our spe- 
cies of Bela with those of other regions without a direct and exten- 
sive comparison of the specimens themselves, including not only their 
shells, but also their odontophores. Moreover, the confusion, as to - 
names, is so great that no reliable data can be given as to the foreign 
distribution of these species. The same remark also applies to the 
recorded localities of such species, in the fossil state, whether in 
America or Europe. 
Bela scalaris (Moll.) H. and A. Adams. 
Defrancia scalaris M oiler, lud. Moll. Gronl., Kroyer’s Tidss., iv, p. So, 1842. 
t'usus tv/rricula Gould, Rep. on Invert, of Mass.. 1st ed., p. 292. pi. 13. fig. 193, 1841, 
( non Montagu, sp.) 
Mangelia turricula (pars) Stimpson, Shells Mew Eng., p. 4 8, 1851. 
Bela turricula Gould, Rep. on Invert, of Mass., Binney’s ed.. p. 351, fig. 620, 1870. 
Bela scalaris G. 0. Sars. Moll. Arctic* Nor regia-, p. 229. pi. 23. fig. 5. pi. viii. fig. 
16, (dentition). 
Hi-I,a americana Packard. Mem. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist.,vol. i, p. 285, pi. 7, fig. 1 1. 1866. 
Plate LVLI, figures 12, 12 a . 
Shell large, fusiform, regularly turreted, with a rather high, acute 
spire. Whorls seven or eight, strongly ribbed, angularly and nearly 
squarely shouldered ; the shoulder is distinctly, but usually not 
strongly carinated, not at all nodulous, or but slightly so ; the 
whorls are much flattened below the shoulder, but are still a little 
convex, narrowing somewhat at the suture; the subsutural band is 
broad, rising abruptly from the suture, and sloping slightly to the 
shoulder, which it joins at a slightly obtuse angle. The whorls are 
crossed by 14 to 20 strong, rounded, rather regular, nearly straight, 
prominent ribs: they are a little thickened and at t he shoulder sepa- 
rated by broader, concave interspaces; the ribs are continued across 
