256 KEY. B. BOOG WATSON ON THE 



a lighter shade suffuses the whole umbilicus aud pillar : the rest 

 of the shell is covered with a delicate network of fine, sharply de- 

 fined light-chestnut lines ; amidst this network are two or three 

 spiral zones, where the brown lines are sparser and pale lanceo- 

 late spots appear. 'Epidermis: none visible. Spire scarcely 

 raised, but just perceptibly conical. Apex rather large, with 

 the extreme rounded tip appearing at the highest point of 

 the shell. Whorls 4| (of which the first 2| are embryonic and 

 glassy), very flatly rounded, of rather slow increase. Suture 

 almost horizontal and very slight. Mouth very oblique, semicir- 

 cular, but pointed above and rounded below, with a slight angu- 

 lation at the frout of the pillar ; the filling up of the superior 

 corner by the labial pad equalizes the two extremities and re- 

 duces the opening to an unequal-sided oval ; its entire height is 

 about \^- of the whole height of the shell ; it is open, transparent 

 porcellanous white within. Outer lip : it advances slightly on 

 leaving the body-whorl, but beyond the pad retreats a very little, 

 and from this point its whole curve is very equable ; its edge is 

 blunt and rounded. Inner lip very slightly concave ; at the 

 upper angle of the mouth it is formed by a thick transparently 

 porcellanous pad, which is faintly tinged with chestnut : this pad 

 projects beyond the plane of the mouth in a point,which is separated 

 from the outer lip by a little triangular depression ; it is continued 

 with an uneven surface across the body, and unites with the pad 

 which closes the upper part of the umbilicus, and is connected 

 with the great chestnut-coloured spiral buttress which chokes up 

 the umbilicus, below which the narrow umbilical furrow cuts 

 deeply into the thickness of the pillar, whose edge is bevelled off 

 from without and from within ; towards its point the pillar is 

 thickened by the feeble circumumbilical carina, which is rather 

 suddenly developed and made distinct at this point. Umbilicus 

 consists only of the channel or gutter, which twists round the 

 pillar callus and disappears behind it. H. 0327. B. - 36. 

 Penultimate whorl,height 0'075. Mouth, height 029, breadth 016. 

 Brazier, in the Chevert Exped. Marine Shells, Proc. Linn. Soc. 

 N. S. Wales, 1877, i. p. 237, gives what is, I suppose, this species 

 under the name of Lunatia variabilis, Becluz, and ascribes as its 

 habitat JS". and N.E. Australia and New Caledonia, 5-30 fms. In 

 the British Museum there is a Natica presented by M' Andrew, 

 and in his handwriting and initialed by him it is attested to come 

 from Suez ; probably it was his own dredging there (see his 



