28 ZOOLOGY OF THE VOYAGE OF H.M.S. SAMARA.NG. 



The animal of Mitra flammigera, one of these deep-water species, is very prettily marked. The body is 

 grey, varied with round, well-defined, white spots, and dark -brown blotches, of a pyramidal form, arranged 

 in a row round the lower edge in a Yandyke pattern, and below that a white rim with a row of small, 

 linear, horizontal, black spots; the head is wliite, marbled with grey-brown ; the eyes black and the 

 tentacles white, with a large, oval, black spot in their middle ; the siphon is brown, edged with black, and 

 with a broad white band at its free extremity. The operculum is very minute, horny, and transparent. — 

 Caramata Passage ; fourteen fathoms, hard muddy bottom, mixed with sand and broken shells. 



Another species, with the same habits, the Mitra interlirata, is semiopake, white, faintly mottled 

 with light brown, with the eyes at the outer base of the tentacles and black. — China Sea ; ten fathoms. 



The animal of that division of the genus which Swainson included under Conolielix is the same as in 

 the typical species. I have found the Mitra Conns buried rather deep in the soft black mud under the 

 roots of trees in mangrove swamps, above high-water mark, in the Island of Basilan. The M. conica is 

 found in company with other species of Mitres, crawling slowly over the sandy mud in shallow places, 

 among the islands of the Philippine group. 



Although M. Quoy has rightly termed the Mitra an " animale apathique," I have seen the small 

 longitudinally-ribbed species crawl about pretty briskly over the smooth sand among the low coral is- 

 lands. The Mitra ejnscoj)alis, probably on account of the small size of its locomotive disc, and the 

 ponderous nature of its long shell, is a very sluggish mollusk. I have observed some of the Auricula- 

 shaped Mitres that live among the Philippines, in the shallow pools left by the receding tide, crawling 

 about the stones out of the water, in company with Tlanaxis and Qiwi/ia. The Mitres, like many 

 of the large Yolutes, prefer, however, to associate together, and may be seen in dozens crawling over 

 the sandy mud-flats in shallow water, being most active just as the flood-tide makes. When the tide 

 recedes, they bury themselves superficially in the yielding soil, and are with difficulty discovered. 

 Some of the small-ribbed species cover themselves entirely with the sandy mud, and in that disguised 

 condition travel about with comparative security. On one occasion, on the small island of Ambolan 

 at the south end of Mindoro, I was walking up to my ankles over a firm sandy mud-flat, taking 

 little notice of the Cones, Strombi, Meleagrina, and Yolutes, which people the water in great numbers, but 

 looking about anxiously for the rarer Mitres, when I first perceived these small species, under their 

 ingenious disguise, marching in towards the shore as the tide flowed rapidly over the level surface. 

 Persons, by the way, should never venture in places of this description barefooted, as there is a species of 

 Pinna which buries its sharp end in the mud, but leaves the thin trenchant edges of the gaping 

 extremity exposed, and, when trodden on, inflicts very deep and painful incised wounds. Both myself and 

 geveral of the boat's crew suffered in this way. A. A. 



7. MARGINELLA, Lamarck. 



1. Maeginella diadochus. PI. YII. Pig. 4 a, b, c. Marg. testa oblongo-ovata, spira subprominula, 

 anfractibus quinque, superne declivibus et tumidiusculis, columella quadriplicata, apertura. subangusta, 

 labro vix incrassato ; olivaceo-carneola, lineis nigris distantibus conspicue subirregulariter cingulata. 



Hab. Straits of Sunda ; from a sandy floor at a depth of about three fathoms. 



The animal of this beautiful species may be described as follows : — Tentacles yellowish, 

 with a row of marbled crimson spots ; eyes black and minute ; mantle pale, semi- 



