NASSA PROPINQUA. . 73 



Jeffreys, differing from it both in form and sculpture. The latter is smaller, the 

 spire is shorter, the spiral strige are confined to the upper whorls, which are longi- 

 tudinally ribbed, and to the lower part of the last, each of the whorls having 

 a clearly marked band at the top, immediately below the suture. 



Bellardi has given about thirty closely allied species belonging to this group, 

 but as far as I can judge from his figures, it is iV^. gigantida, Born, a species 

 characteristic of the Upper Miocene and the Lower Pliocene, and some other 

 similar forms that agree Avith our shell more nearly than does N. semistriata. 



Some years ago, however, during a visit to Sicily, I obtained from the Pleisto- 

 cene deposits of Ficarazzi near Palermo a number of specimens corresponding 

 exactly wnth the Crag species in question. 



N. lahiosa belongs to the group of southern shells characteristic of the 

 Mediterranean or the Italian Pliocene which occur in the earlier beds of the Crag, 

 a gradually diminishing survival of an older Pliocene fauna of which now but 

 little trace is left in these northern regions. 



Nassa propinqua (J. Sowerby). 



1825. Buccinum inopinquum, J. Sowerby, Miu. Couch., vol. v, p. 121, tab. ccccxlvii, fig. 2. 



1843. Buccimim 'propinqimm, Njst, Coq. foss. Terr. Tert. Belg., p. 574, pi. xliii, fig. 10. 



1843-70. Nassa trivittata, Gould (?), Eep. luv. Mass., 1st ed., p. .309, fig. 211, 1843 ; 2ud ed., p. 364, 



fig. 632, 1870. 

 1848-72. Nassa propinqua, S. V. Wood, Mou. Crag Moll , pt. i, p. 30, tab. iii, fig. 2, 1848 ; 1st Suppl., 



p. 13, 1872. 



1870. Nassa propinqua, A. Bell, Auu. Mag. Nat. Hist. [4], vol. vi, p. 215. 



1871. Nassa propiniua, Jeffreys in Prestwich, Quart. Journ. Geol. See, vol. xxvii, p. 489. 

 1882. Nassa propinqua, Nyst, Couch. Terr. Tert. Belg., p. 27, pi. ii, fii(. 9. 



1892. Nassa propinqua, Vau deu Broeck, Bull. Soc. Beige GcoL, vol. vi (Memoires), p. 131. 

 1912. Nassa propinqua, Tesch, Med. v. d. Kijks. v. Delfstoffen, pt. iv, p. 80. 



Specific Characters. — See Mon. Crag Moll., pt. i, p. 30. 



Dimensions. — L. 20 mm. B. 11 mm. 



Distribution. — Recent .- north-eastern coasts of America (?). 



Fossil : Red Crag : Waltonian ; Newbournian ; Butleyan. 

 Icenian (rare) : Bramerton, Easton Bavent. Scaldisien : Belgium; Holland. 



Remarks. — Unlike many of the species already described, iV^. projnnqaa is of a 

 North American rather than of a Mediterranean type. Jeffreys and A. Bell 

 identified it with N. trivittata, Say, a recent species from the coast of Maine, a 

 view which Wood seemed inclined to admit, but Nyst did not. Comparing the 

 Crag fossil with some specimens which Mr. C. W. Johnson has kindly sent me 

 from the Boston Museum, I am disposed to think the one may be a geographical 

 variety of the other. The principal difference between the two is that in the 

 American shell the upper part of the whorls and consequently of the mouth has 

 a squared outline, and the first row of tubercles is not so distinctl}'' separated from 



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