MOLLUSCS. 



331 



canal is very long and almost converted into a closed tube, while the surface of the 

 shell is armed with very long and slender spines, evidently defensive in their nature. 

 In forms like M. endiva and M. scorpio, the spines are stouter and broadened at the 

 extremity. None of the species of Murex proper extend into the colder waters of our 

 Atlantic coast ; indeed the genus belongs largely to the tropical waters of the old 

 world. In their place are found a few small species belonging to allied genera, of 

 which Eupleura caudata may be mentioned first. In this species but two prominent 

 varices are formed to a whorl, giving the shell a flattened appearance, a fact which led 

 to its original description under the generic name Banella. The aperture is toothed 

 within, and smaller ridges occur between the well-marked varices. The shell is brown 

 in color, and reaches a length of about an inch. It is rather uncommon on the 

 southern shores of New England, except in certain localities, but farther south it is 

 very abundant. 



Urosalpinx cinerea, on our coasts, plays the same destructive part that Murex bran- 

 daris does in Europe. The fishermen have applied to it the name ' drill,' on account of 

 its settling down on oysters and boring a hole througli the shell, through 

 which the soft parts are eaten. The drill is sluggish in its motions. It 

 is about the size of the last species, ashy or brownish in color, and orna- 

 mented with ten or twelve undulations on the lower whorl. It lays its 

 eggs in capsules, of about the same size as those of Purpura lapillus, to 

 be described in the next family, but differing from them in being flat- 

 tened and keeled at the edges. Each capsule, on the average, contains 

 ten or twelve eggs. The drill ranges from Massachusetts Bay to Florida; 

 north of Massachusetts it is rare and local ; yet a colony exists in the ^la 413 — vro- 

 southern part of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, a fact which at once recalls '^^'^ cinerea, 

 the existence of oysters in the same region. 



In the Fusinae the shell is spindle-shaped, and the edge is never thickened so that 

 no varices are formed. Fiisus contains a number of tropical and sub-tropical forms 

 in which the spindle shape is especially well marked. The northern species, formerly 

 referred to this genus, are now referred to the next family. In the typical forms the 

 columella is smooth, a fact which separates it from Fasciolaria, in which it bears 

 oblique folds. Fasciolaria gigantea, which occurs on the southern coast of the 

 United States, is the largest known gasteropod, its shell reaching a length of nearly 

 two feet. 



The BucciNiD^ is closely related to the Muricidae. The spiral shell, instead of a 

 long siphonal canal, has a notch through which the long siphon is extended. While 

 many of the included forms are very distinct, there are others which can scarcely be 

 separated from the preceding family. This is especially true of a group of boreal 

 shells, represented on our coasts by the genera Neptunea and Sipho. Here the shell 

 is nmch like that in Fusus, and indeed, the species were formerly included in that 

 genus. W. decemcostatus is marked with ten large revolving ribs on the body whorl. 

 Si2)ho islandicus is even more like a Fusus. Both are large shells occurring in 

 the cold deep water north of Cape Cod, reaching a length of nearly or quite three 

 inches. 



Another problematical genus is Pynda, with its various sub-divisions, Fulgur, Scy- 

 cotypus, etc., some of which probably belong here, while others should be transferred 

 to the Muricidje, the Doliidas, etc. In all, the shell is somewhat pear-shaped in outline, 

 the spire being short, while the antei-ior end is greatly prolonged to correspond to the 



